Devious Minds
by frostykitten
Summary: Sequel to Deceptive Natures. All grown up and out in the real world, Rose can't help continuing her manipulative ways. She's going to need them when everyone around her seems to have a problem that only her particular skill-set can solve.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**A/N: Hello readers! This is the sequel to Deceptive Natures, but you don't really need to read the first one to understand this one.**

**Sorry I was away for a while, I just wasn't in the mood for typing anything I'd already started. I half wrote a bunch of things I'll probably never publish though. Anyway, novel writing month has me back in the typing habit, so you're going to be seeing a lot more of me.**

**This isn't betaed, so any mistakes are entirely my fault.**

**~Frosty**

Rose woke up to quiet voices filtering up the stairs. It sounded like Scorpius had company in the middle of the night. Without telling her. That probably didn't bode well. Frowning, Rose felt the covers beside her. They were cold.

She put on a robe, grabbed her wand and padded down the stairs. From almost two years of practice, she knew which steps creaked and where to put her feet to walk soundlessly. She and Scorpius had a game of always trying to sneak up on one another, a game that both had them more alert at all times and taught them how to move with complete silence in their own home.

"You can't tell Rose about this."

Her eyebrows rose at the whispered plea. It wasn't Scorpius speaking and it was hard to tell from just a whisper, but Rose was pretty sure she knew the identity of their late-night visitor. What she didn't know was why in the world her brother was visiting Scorpius in wee hours of the morning and begging him to keep something from her. Sure, the two occasionally had a beer and a chat, but Scorpius just wasn't the type to entertain all that often and Rose wasn't overly close with her younger brother.

Hugo was the dependable child, the one their mum was always praising for his accomplishments. He was responsible and studious, studying his way towards a career as a Healer. In a few years, Rose was confident that he'd be known around the world for some medical advance or another once he started applying all of his new learning to actual diseases. Already he had quietly discovered a treatment of hay fever that was doing wonders for allergy sufferers everywhere. He was the responsible, law abiding one that was going places.

So it was particularly startling for her to see her brother sitting on her sofa wearing a bed sheet toga that was stained with what looked like blood down the side. One of his eyes was blackened and his lips were split, but from what Rose could see, most of the blood wasn't his.

"I'm afraid she already knows," Scorpius said. He turned around and raised his eyebrows at his lurking girlfriend. "Are you going to join us or just peek around the corner trying to gather information that we'd willingly tell you?"

Hugo paled. "I didn't say that I was willing to tell her. I just asked you _not_ to tell Rose."

"And I didn't tell her anything. You were here; she overheard it on her own."

Rose sat down beside Scorpius and lifted one of his arms to snuggle into his side. There was a fire in the grate that warmed the room somewhat, but Rose had caught a chill sleeping in their bed all on her own in the middle of the coldest winter that she could remember.

"I think one of you needs to start talking," she said once she was settled and feeling a little warmer.

While he had been large when he was fifteen, Hugo was absolutely massive now that he was fully grown. Scorpius was tall, but Hugo was much taller and almost twice as wide. Upon first glance, people often assumed that he was someone who spent their time wrangling dragons like their Uncle Charlie had until one of his dragons bit off his arm and he was forced to retire.

These people were horribly wrong. Hugo was a gentle giant, preferring to spend his time using his brain to help people instead of his strength and size to intimidate. This made his injuries all the more baffling. He just didn't fight, even when provoked.

It was Scorpius who answered her question; Hugo seemed pretty content to just stare miserably at his feet in silence.

"It seems that Hugo here and his friends got up to a little gambling last night."

"Is that all?" Rose asked, impatient to get back to her nice warm bed. "So give him the money he lost and we can work on something to take the winner down a few pegs tomorrow, once the sun comes up and I've had at least one cup of coffee."

Both Rose and Scorpius had more than enough disposable income to their names. Some of the money came from Scorpius' job at Gringotts, where he specialized in helping other people make good investment choices, but he did that to give himself something to do and because he liked numbers, not to make money. Some of it was obtained by less than legal means, but nothing too horrible. Mostly, it was Scorpius' knowledge of clever investments that led to their high net worth.

Hugo groaned and put his head in his hands. "It's not that simple."

"Then explain it to me."

"As a wedding present, he bought the farmhouse Henrietta's grandparents used to own," Scorpius said when Hugo seemed content to wallow in his own carelessness. "Hugo used the house as a bet."

Rose whacked her brother on the head. "That wasn't smart," she admonished. "But I still don't see what the problem is. I'll pay them a visit in the morning and offer them an obscene amount of money for the house."

"The establishment Hugo and his friends chose for their evening of lawlessness wasn't one that the Aurors would approve of," Scorpius said. "It's very possible they're not going to be amendable to any reasonable propositions."

Eyebrows raised, Rose sat back and looked her brother over a second time. She wasn't sure she wanted to know where the toga portion of his night had come into play, but she was impressed with what little she knew. Hugo was always the good child, and now he wouldn't be able to shoot Rose disappointed looks when their mum mentioned how Rose should get a job for herself instead of living off of the "fruits of her lawbreaking."

"When you decide to start breaking rules, you really go all out."

Hugo didn't seem to appreciate her admiration. He hunched up his shoulders and sunk down into the sofa, trying unsuccessfully to make himself seem smaller. For someone so large, it was a futile effort. Amusing to watch, though.

All three of them jumped when there was a booming knock at the door.

Scorpius looked down at Rose. "Are we expecting someone at-" he glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece "- five in the morning?"

"Nope." Rose extracted himself from under his arm. "I'll get the door, you make the coffee. This is going to be one of those busy days."

If she'd known how right she was, Rose would never have dragged herself from their bed.

The floors were cold on her bare feet and Rose had a scowl on her face by the time she reached the door. Whoever was on the other side wasn't very patient. They hadn't stopped banging even once during Rose's short walk.

"What?" Rose demanded as she ripped open the door.

Hyacinth was on the other side with snowflakes clinging in her hair. Despite the early hour, she was fully dressed for a day at the office, complete with flawless makeup and heels. How she managed to walk in heels _on ice, _Rose would never know.

"Let me in," Hy said, pushing past her friend. "Looking this good doesn't exactly keep me warm."

"What's so important that it couldn't wait a few hours?"

Hy handed Rose the rolled up paper she'd been carrying under her arm. "You're going to want to read this."

A natural gossip, Hyacinth had realized her dream of her own column in the _Daily Prophet _very recently. It meant that she saw the paper before almost everyone else, and it was never good when she paid Rose a special visit just to deliver a copy. Either something horrible had happened and Hy wanted to be there to comfort Rose when she read it, or something horrible had happened and Hy wanted to be there to laugh while Rose desperately tried to come up with a new plan.

"Is that coffee I smell?" Hy asked while Rose opened up the paper and started reading.

Both women made their way back to the fire where it was warm. Hy even popped off her heels and sat them beside the fire so they would be nice and warm when she had to leave again.

Hy grinned as she took in Hugo and his partially hung over misery. "Nice toga."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Her grin widened. "That's a shame, because I'm sure you're going to have a few questions to answer."

"What do you mean?"

Rose looked up from the paper, not sure whether to laugh hysterically or be concerned. "Hugo, do you remember doing anything last night that you haven't told me?"

"No."

She turned the paper around so he could see the large, moving picture that took up most of the second page. In it, Hugo and a few young men who must be his fellow Healer trainees were weaving down the street, all of them wearing bed sheet togas. One of them realized that there was a camera pointed in their direction and told his fellows. With admirable synchronization, they all bent over and lifted up the back of their togas to reveal that none of them were wearing anything under their bed sheets.

Hyacinth cackled as Hugo turned as red as his bright hair.

"What does it say?" Hugo asked in a small voice, not able to make eye contact with anyone. He was trying to shrink into the cushions again, but Rose had more amusing things to occupy her.

"Just that it seems some of our finest young medical minds can be a little irresponsible at times," Rose said. "Overall, it isn't nearly as bad as it could have been. They presented it as youth having a night out instead of questioning your competency as future Healers."

Hy cleared her throat with her eyes widened pointedly, prompting Rose to take a second look at the article, this time checking the author. Hyacinth Goyle.

"Congratulations, you got an article on the second page," Rose said while Hy beamed.

"Don't congratulate her! Mum's going to kill me for that article, not to mention what Henrietta's going to do!"

Scorpius came in with a tray of coffee cups and a frown for Hy. He passed around the coffee and settled back beside Rose, who passed him the paper so he could catch up with the rest of them. When Scorpius saw the picture, he snorted and shook his head at Hugo.

"Rose, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Hy asked, all her earlier glee gone.

After sharing a confused glance with Scorpius, Rose followed her friend into the kitchen. There was an owl outside the window there, pecking at the glass to get their attention.

"What did you want to talk about?" Rose asked as she opened the window and untied the letter from the nippy owl carrying it.

"You remember how the Terrible Tortoises are my favourite band?"

Rose made an absent sound of assent as she opened the letter.

"I kind of slept with the lead singer and then got angry when he tried to leave without even finding out my name so I locked him in the bedroom so we could get to know each other a little better because I knew he'd like me if he just had the chance and now he's saying he's going to press charges for forcible confinement and kidnapping." Hyacinth said it all in one breath and had to spend a moment settling her breathing back into a normal rhythm.

Rose stopped in the middle of opening her letter. Clearly her friend was needed her full attention. "Just to be clear, you have a rock star trapped in your bedroom."

"Well he's not in my bedroom _now_, I moved him to the linen closet when he started threatening to press charges."

"Of course." Rose started turning the problem around in her head, too tired to really enjoy all of the plotting she was going to get to do. "Go to work like normal, I'll see what I can do about this."

Hy nodded gratefully and threw herself at Rose before gathering her shoes and prancing out into the snow without any hesitation. She was completely confident in Rose's ability to make the problem go away.

Clearly Rose spoiled her friends.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: Hello readers! In case you don't remember, I posted a Deceptive Natures chapters every other day or so. This one's all edited and such, so I'm going to try for a similar schedule with this one. It's 15 chapters.**

**Thanks to all of the lovely people who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

Scorpius came into the kitchen in search of Rose not long after Hyacinth rushed from the house.

"Has Hugo left?" she asked, not looking up from the letter she was reading.

"He's going to go and grovel to Henrietta and hope she doesn't force him to sleep on the sofa for the next week. What does the letter say?"

"Dad wants me to pay him a visit tomorrow. He wants me to take a look at a case that's giving him trouble."

Ever since Rose had assisted the Aurors in taking down the blood supremacists at Hogwarts, Ron sought out Rose's help on the occasional case when the Aurors just couldn't get anywhere with them. The arrangement worked well for both of them because Ron never asked how Rose gained her information and Rose had something productive to do with her time. This helped her greatly whenever her mum nagged her about wasting her life away.

"Anything dangerous?" he asked with a feigned indifference that didn't fool her for a second. Scorpius hated it when Rose got herself into trouble, but he hated it even more when she got herself into trouble with dangerous criminals because her father had asked for her help.

"Scorpius Malfoy, if you think proposing gave you the right to try and coddle me, I'm going to have to turn the entire weight of my manipulative powers against you."

He rolled his eyes at her and snatched the letter from her hands while she was all tensed up and glaring at him. "I wouldn't want that, now would I?"

Instead of trying to grab the letter back and giving him a chance of using his greater height to his advantage, Rose set the parchment on fire, laughing when Scorpius jumped in surprise and then ran his singed fingers under the faucet.

"Was that really necessary?"

"You stole and read my personal correspondence with plans of stopping me from something I'm doing for my father. I've ruined people for less."

"I'll have to be grateful that you're content with maiming me then."

"You didn't even burn," she said dismissively.

Scorpius shook his head, knowing that he wasn't going to win any ground on the subject and not really caring to, especially since Rose was right; he wasn't injured. He glanced at the clock and then leaned down give her a quick kiss. "I have to get dressed."

Rose stayed in the kitchen. She made herself another cup of coffee and settled down at the table with some parchment to scribble on while her mind was elsewhere.

There was a small pop and then a horrified gasp, but Rose didn't look up from her doodles. "Miss should have asked Hobitha to makes her a coffee!"

After living with Scorpius' House Elf for so long, Rose knew how to handle her. The little creature was always going to insist on doing everything for them and telling her that they didn't mind making their own coffee wasn't going to change anything. It was just a waste of breath.

Instead, Hobitha needed to be distracted.

"Scorpius asked that you make him French toast this morning," Rose said.

She didn't need to look up to know that Hobitha was frowning, understandably suspicious. "But Master doesn't like the cinnamons."

"He said he wanted to try something new."

When Scorpius came downstairs dressed for his job at Gringotts, he didn't immediately notice the steaming stack of French toast waiting for him. His attention was on the parchment in front of Rose.

"Plotting doodles," Scorpius observed. "Are you working on Hugo's problem already?"

"No, Hy has a rock star locked in her linen closet. She's asked me to handle it."

"I knew there was a reason I always avoided her. That girl is certifiable."

She finally looked up to see Scorpius frowning at his breakfast.

"Thanks for this," he grumbled when he caught her smile. So Hobitha wouldn't be hurt, Scorpius reluctantly took a bite of the food, cringing the entire time.

After a few bites, Rose relented and took the plate from him. He might dislike cinnamon, but Rose had nothing against it. When Hobitha brought Rose's bagel to the table, she saw that Rose had taken Scorpius' food and gave him the bagel instead.

Rose grinned at him around a delicious, cinnamon-filled bite of his breakfast.

"You're a cruel woman."

Rose shrugged. "It's part of my charm."

Rolling his eyes at her, Scorpius stopped beside her and leaned down so she could kiss him, bringing the other half of his bagel with him when he left for work. "Try not to topple any governments while I'm gone."

"That was one time and it was an accident!"

* * *

Ron was glaring at the newspaper when Rose entered his office. "Have you seen what your brother's done?"

"I did. Personally, I'm relieved. For a while there I was worried that he was one of those robots that Grandpa Weasley likes to tinker with."

"Your mum says those are toasters, not robots." Ron looked back down at the picture of Hugo and his friends making fools of themselves. "I just wish he'd chosen a less public way to let loose. This is going to haunt him for a while."

"Daddy, I woke up at a disgustingly early hour to Hugo on my sofa in a toga. I'm going to make sure this haunts him for a while."

Ron's eyes narrowed. He knew his children didn't make a habit of visiting each other. Either Hugo was in more trouble than the papers suggested, or Rose needed her brother's help in some scheme or another. Both choices meant nothing good for Hugo. "What was Hugo doing visiting you in the middle of the night?"

"I imagine he was dreading going home and facing Henrietta after staying out all night."

After the events at Hogwarts, Rose had started letting more and more of her true personality break through her facade. It was inconvenient that people, her dad especially, didn't automatically believe everything she said, but it was better for her. To hide so much of herself from her family because she thought they wouldn't like the true her was more emotionally taxing than she could have believed while she was still living the lie.

Ron narrowed his eyes further. "That was the only reason he was visiting you?"

"Of course." She blinked at him innocently, trying to look a little confused.

With his eyes opened to Rose's true nature, Ron sometimes employed interrogation skills that he'd learned working as an Auror. It had thrown him at first, needing interrogation skills in casual conversation, but he quickly adjusted. "He's not in more trouble than the paper says? Don't think I didn't notice Hyacinth is the one who wrote the article."

"Would I keep something like that from you?"

"Yes. Without a second's hesitation."

Rose resisted the urge to fake a pout. "He's not in any trouble that will ever make the papers. That's all I'm willing to share. Now, you said in your letter that you had something you wanted my help with?"

Ron fished through one of his desk drawers and came up with a file, knowing from experience that their previous topic was now firmly closed. "Documents are going missing from the Auror office, disappearing right out from under our noses."

"Files," Rose said flatly. She knew her dad tried to give her jobs that didn't involve much danger, but hunting for files was a job for a filing clerk.

"Some of them are highly confidential. Without them, we have a potential security breach that could mean very bad things; you understand how dangerous information can be in the wrong hands. We've been looking into it, but-"

"You haven't been looking too hard because it's humiliating and you don't want it getting out that Aurors are losing important files," she finished for him. Rose's gaze was turned down as she flipped through the lists of missing documents, so she didn't see her father's frown.

She looked up from the file and stared hard at her father. "Why do I have a feeling that this is just something to keep me busy?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

Rose would have been more inclined to believe him if he didn't have the practiced blankness of someone determined to hide their expression.

"I'll look into this," Rose finally said after waiting to see if his blank facade would crack. "But if I find out that you're giving me something to keep me from interfering in some other project you have going, neither of us are going to be very happy."

The door slammed on her way out, mostly to show that she wasn't pleased about whatever he was trying to do and that she wasn't going to let him manipulate her.

She stopped off at a Muggle bakery just down the street from the Ministry. They had the best apple cinnamon muffins Rose had ever tasted, and that was saying something considering what an amazing cook her grandmother was.

Bag of muffins in hand, she Apparated in front of a small cottage with a bright green door and a lawn in desperate need of a trim.

She knocked and waited a while, knowing that he wasn't a morning person any more than she was. Rose knocked again, this time louder.

The door jerked open just as she was about to knock a third time. The figure on the other side wasn't wearing a shirt and was quite rumpled.

"No good ever comes from your visits, Rose Weasley."

With a sweet smile, she held up the bakery bag. "I brought apple cinnamon muffins from your favourite bakery. Come on, Quinn, I just need some information."

The boy who had been the school bookie back at Hogwarts had grown up into the man who always knew what was happening in the criminal underworld. While not involved in much crime himself, he was still a bookie for the magical world's less than savoury characters and had an ear for gossip. Apparently, when amongst their own, criminals gossiped like old women in a hair salon – or at least this is what Rose assumed considering all the information Quinn seemed to know.

"Come in," he grumbled, snatching the muffins from her and muttering about the injustice of the best bakery in the country residing right beside a building overrun with Aurors. He was still the affable person he'd been in school, but that was only in the event that Rose visited him after noon. He wasn't much of a morning person, something she supposed she could sympathise with. After all, she hadn't been very polite to her early morning visitors either.

Quinn shoved half a muffin in his mouth as he poured himself a cup of coffee and then plopped himself down at his kitchen table.

With a roll of her eyes at his complete lack of hospitality, Rose poured herself a cup of coffee and joined him. She tried not to watch as he ate. If she looked directly at him, there was a chance that she wouldn't be able to eat an apple cinnamon muffin again, and that would just be a shame.

"I need to know everything you can tell me about a gambling den at this address," Rose said, sliding the scrap of parchment with Hugo's scribbled handwriting towards Quinn.

She'd learned that it was best to tell him what she needed while he was still eating. Quinn hated disclosing anything to her because he was always worried that something she did would get the wrong person arrested and him killed. If she asked him while he still felt indebted to her for the delicious pastry gift, he was more likely to disclose something of worth.

Quinn glanced at the paper and then squinted while he tried to decipher Hugo's chicken scratch. He swallowed a big lump of muffin and didn't take another bite, something that was actually a little worrying.

"You don't want to be involved with those people, Weasley," he said seriously. "They're more dangerous than you and I could ever be. A whole different league entirely."

"Have you read the paper yet?"

Quinn shook his head. "I was sleeping until you tried to knock my door down."

"Second page."

"You want me to read it now?"

"Humour me."

With a gusty sigh, Quinn crossed the kitchen to grab the paper, and then sat back down to flip through it.

"You could have warned me there'd be nudity," he grumbled when he got a good look at the picture. Quinn looked back up at her. "How is your brother's little bender relevant?"

"He's getting married in a few months. His wedding present to his wife was the house her grandparents owned before they died and it was sold. While on his bender, he visited that address and stupidly gambled away the deed to that house. He needs it back. I'm not going to gamble, just to buy it back from them."

"That's not how these people operate, Weasley. You have to put something on the table costly enough to make it worth their while before they'll let you play their game. That's the way they work; if there's a chance they're going to be able to get your money and keep the house, they're going to take it."

Well that made the whole mess just a little more difficult. Rose had been aware of the possibility that she was going to have to play their game. Of course, she'd just been hoping that throwing enough money at them would fix Hugo's problems. A lot of the time, money was enough to persuade people to see things her way.

"Then I'm just going to have to be careful," she said, stretching her mouth into her shark's grin.

Quinn shuddered and took another bite of muffin. "What have I told you about making that face in my house? It gives me the chills."

* * *

No longer able to spend long hours sitting behind her desk without her joints paining her, Hermione Weasley had retired from her job at the Ministry to stay at home and quietly immerse herself in academia. Her body was failing her, but her mind was still as sharp as ever.

Rose let herself into her parents' house without knocking. Her mum wasn't much of a cook, but there were a few recipes that she had mastered. The chocolate chip cookies cooling on the counter were one of those recipes.

"Don't you touch those, Rose Weasley," Hermione called from her study as Rose's hand hovered over the sugary treat.

"Every time," Rose grumbled. There had to be magic involved in how her mum always knew when she was about to eat something that could ruin her dinner.

"Are you going to come see me or are you going to drool over those cookies a while longer?"

Sometimes Rose forgot that a lot of her personality came from her mum. She always hated it when she was reminded.

Rose followed the sound of her mother's voice to Hermione's study. Through much trial and error, Hermione had found that a hammock magically mounted on the walls kept her in the best position for her aching joints.

"That's not what I'm here about."

Hermione tilted her nose up slightly, a smug gesture she wasn't able to suppress. "I'm right. What trouble has Hugo gotten himself into?"

"It's nothing, Mum. I'm handling it. I'm actually here because Astoria insisted I hand deliver this package." She fished said package out of her bag and handed it over to her mother.

Of course, Rose knew exactly what was in that package. When Astoria gave it to her, she had known that Rose was going to check over the contents before giving it to her mum. Not looking inside was just careless.

She watched as her mum opened the package and flipped though its contents. Astoria had gathered an array of bridal magazines as well as fabric swatches and a number of other pamphlets.

Hermione's eyes immediately whipped up to meet her daughter's. "You're getting married?"

"Scorpius proposed a week ago, I was going to put off the wedding planning as long as physically possible. Astoria had other ideas."

"And you waited a whole week to tell me?"

"I knew you were going to start asking me about plans as soon as I told you, and I wanted to take some time to enjoy being engaged before the horrors of actually planning the wedding squished that right out of me."

Hermione frowned. "Is that what you think of me?"

"Let's pretend that I've just told you that I'm getting married, but I hadn't handed you the package that Astoria assembled for me. What would your reaction be?"

"I certainly wouldn't-" She stopped as Rose raised an eyebrow. "Fine, I may have asked about your plans. We have a large family and it takes preparation for that many people."

"You don't have to remind me how large our family is, Mum." Rose hopped down from the desk. "I'm pretty sure Astoria wants to plan the wedding with you. You should owl her about it."

"Rose Weasley, are you trying to foist off the planning of your wedding onto other people?"

Grinning, Rose kissed her mum's cheek. "I'm not trying it, I'm doing it. Astoria's planning it and I thought you might want to have some input. As long as it's Scorpius at the end of the isle, I don't really care either way."

Before her mum could make more objections, Rose fled the room. It took Hermione a while to extract herself from the hammock, so it wasn't exactly difficult to escape. She grabbed one of the cookies on her way out, knowing her mum was too distracted with reading over Astoria's wedding planning package to yell at her for it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**A/N: Hello readers! Another chapter! This one has one of my favourite scenes in it. *snicker* I hope you like it.**

**Thanks once more to everyone who took the time to review!**

**~Frosty**

"What took you so long?" Hy said frantically, her eyes wide in her pale face.

Rose raised her eyebrows at her friend's appearance. When Hy left that morning for work, she was perfectly coiffed, yet now she looked more rumpled than Rose had ever seen her. Hy was the type to wake up with her hair nearly perfect and her clothes wrinkle free. It had to be spell work, but Rose had never bothered to ask her friend how she managed it.

"I had a few things to take care of before I could get here. Why's there such a rush? I thought he was unconscious in the linen closet?"

Hy's eyes widened further. "Unconscious?" she whispered.

"You left a man trapped all day in your linen closet without knocking him out for it?"

"I'm new at this! I've never had a kidnapping situation before!"

Amateurs. Clearly Rose had been less awake than she thought when she talked to Hy that morning. She'd given the other woman instructions like she would have Scorpius, just expecting her to know the little things like the importance of knocking people out before locking them in confined spaces for the day. Competence was so difficult to find sometimes

"Where is he now?"

Hy pointed a shaking hand towards the door that Rose knew to lead to the linen closet.

"Did you cast a silencing spell?"

Hy nodded.

"Does he have his wand on him?"

"No, it's on my bedroom floor, still in his pants pocket."

"His pants are still on your floor?"

"He's kind of naked."

Rose sighed; of course he was. "Tell me what you know about him."

Hy straightened up and stood at attention like a soldier asked to report to their commanding officer. "Edward 'Amp' Krafton, thirty five. He's been arrested more than once for public intoxication among other things. He's famous for his misogyny and womanizing. He has all kinds of money, but spends it as soon as he makes it, and usually on silly things. He told me last night all about the golden statues of his penis has. The man has a phallic fixation."

"And this was... attractive to you?" Rose shook her head when Hy's stance turned defensive. "Never mind, forget I asked. Okay, bring me his pants and then go back to your room. I need a business casual outfit and something really slutty that shows off my breasts and arse. Work on finding me those while I talk to him."

Grateful for having someone so clearly in control of the situation telling her what to do, Hy rushed off to do as she was asked. Rose plucked the man's wand from his pants and had Hy take it back to the bedroom with her while she raided her closet. It wouldn't do to have the man get ahold of his wand while Rose was trying to talk to him.

Pants in one hand and her own wand in the other, Rose cast the unlocking spell and opened the linen closet door. She had to jump back to avoid the lunging, naked, and screaming male that tried to pin her to the floor.

Once he noticed that she was holding his pants he snatched them from her and slid them on. Even only half clothed, he was a little calmer and the whole situation was more comfortable for everyone. Hy really should have thought of it herself.

"I'm not letting you go until we have a little talk," she said in her best calming a wild animal voice. "Now if you'll just follow me, we can have some tea and talk about this like civilized adults."

He let out a torrent of profanity and insulted her in many creative ways, but followed her to the small living room of Hy's flat and settled on the sofa while Rose went to the kitchenette to prepare a pot of tea. His yelling didn't stop with their new arrangement. He threatened to have both her and Hy arrested, to publicly shame them, even to sic his sometimes rabid fans on them. Rose ignored him, confident he'd tire himself out after a while.

While the water boiled, she took a moment to study him. He was a classic sort of handsome with the same long hair she'd seen on the posters for his band. In real life though, he was a little... less. When he was on posters or up on the stage, he looked larger than life, but in reality he wasn't much taller than Rose and he was a whole lot greasier.

She gave him tea laced with a nice calming draught and settled on a chair across from him while she waited for it to start working. Hands folded in her lap, Rose waited calmly until he stopped throwing profanity and threats at her.

"Are you finished?" she asked once he'd stopped to catch his breath.

He glared, but he nodded and sipped more of his tea. Bringing a vial of the potion to Hy's house with her had been a stroke of genius on her part. She mentally patted herself on the back.

"Good." Rose leaned forward. "What will it take to stop you from pressing charges?"

"There's nothing you can possibly give me to stop me from making sure that psychopath who locked me up spends the rest of her life behind bars," he sneered at her. "There are people who are going to notice that I'm gone. They're going to come looking for me and I'll make sure that you go to jail along with the bitch if you don't let me go right now."

Rose bared her teeth in her shark's smile and watched as it had the same effect as it did on most people. Amp shivered and frowned at her.

"Don't look at me like that."

In her pocket where he couldn't see, Rose fingered her wand. "I'm going to talk to you again in a little while. I'm hoping you'll be a little more responsive then."

She whipped her wand out and knocked him out before he could respond with something that would probably only annoy her. Rose stepped over his sprawled legs, kicking him in the ankle on her way to Hy's bedroom.

"You've got to get better taste in men," she said as she entered. "That man out there is downright foul, not to mention a terrible misogynist."

"Not all of us have a Scorpius out there." Hy poked her head out of her walk in closet, looked her friend up and down, and then threw a skirt over her shoulder, muttering about colours clashing. "You just had to have red hair. There are very few colours that would look good on the both of us, you know."

Hyacinth's bedroom looked like a tornado had hit it after absorbing the entire stock of several clothing stores.

"You know," Rose said as she flopped back onto the bed, dislodging a small mountain of skirts, "You could just flip through the cloths and pull out the articles you think are going to work instead of removing and then throwing everything that won't."

"Don't talk, I'm working."

Rose waited quietly on the bed until Hy emerged from the closet, victorious. She handed Rose a slinky emerald green dress and a brown suede skirt and jacket outfit. Of course, both of them came with a pair of matching heels.

Rose hated heels.

"Don't frown like that, you're wearing the heels or I'm not letting you borrow my clothes. I refuse to let you ruin these outfits with flats."

Hy packed the clothes into a bag after casting anti wrinkle charms over everything while Rose resigned herself to sore feet.

"So what are we doing about the rock star?" Hy asked once Rose was holding the bag.

"I'm taking him with me."

* * *

Rose tumbled out of the fireplace, all tangled up with Hy's unconscious rock star. As it turned out, it was surprisingly difficult to travel through the Floo network with 160 pounds of unconscious rocker tagging along.

"I'm not going anywhere!" someone screeched nearby. It was hard for Rose to identify the voice because it was so screechy, but she had a sinking feeling she knew who it was.

She shoved Amp off of her and went in search of the source of the racket.

Lily was pacing back and forth in front of Scorpius, yelling as he calmly read a book.

"Has anyone offered you tea yet?" Rose asked her cousin. Tea was nice and calming, and just what Lily needed at the moment. It was especially calming when Hobitha had slipped a Calming Draught in it as she'd been instructed to do in these situations.

"I already offered her tea. She declined."

Obviously. No one with a Calming Draught in them could manage the pitch Lily managed to hit.

Rose caught Scorpius' eye and subtly gestured towards the other room. He raised his eyebrows at her but rose from his seat and leaned down so Rose could give him a peck on the cheek.

"There's an unconscious rock star in there," Rose whispered with her lips still against the scratchy skin of his cheek. "Put him in the basement, would you?"

Only once Scorpius had nodded and went to do as she asked did Rose tune in to Lily's screeching.

"You sent my husband to the other side of the planet just because you don't like him! Normal people don't do that. You can't just send away the people you don't like!"

Actually, she could, but that was beside the point. Lily's husband was slime. He taught at a magical university, specializing in rare magical creatures and using this as an excuse to ogle Veelas all the time.

"It certainly took you long enough to realize it was me who arranged his little business trip."

A few months back, it had occurred to Rose that if Dr. Davis was offered a trip that the university wouldn't want him to pass up, he'd be pressured into taking that trip; his academic pride wouldn't let him do anything else. From there it had only taken the creation of a research grant and assembling a team.

"For the record," Rose continued, "I didn't send him to the Amazon because I didn't like him, I sent him there because I was hoping he'd be eaten by a snake, or at least acquire a nice flesh eating disease."

Lily screeched loud enough that Rose was pretty sure the glass on the windows actually vibrated with the sound. It was then that Scorpius wandered back into the room. The sound made him cringe right along with Rose.

They were so busy trying to prevent themselves from sustaining permanent hearing loss that they were unprepared when Lily launched spells at the both of them that knocked them unconscious.

When Rose came to, her wand was gone and she was seated on the sofa. In front of her, Scorpius was tied to one of the wooden chairs from the kitchen.

"You're not getting your fiancé back until you cancel my husband's research trip." Lily's eyes welled with tears. "I just want him back."

Scorpius leaned away from her as much as the ropes would allow, still trying to save his ears. "I hate to point this out to you, but if he really wanted to be with you, he could always say no. Clearly you're his second love, right behind his work."

While he distracted her cousin, Rose examined the ropes that Lily had used to tie Scorpius to the chair. "You got those from the linen closet?"

"Yes." Lily was confused that Rose wasn't angrier about her holding Scorpius hostage.

"Those are from your father," Rose said to Scorpius. "They're soaked in a poison that's slow acting. If you don't receive the antidote within a week, you'll slip into a coma and eventually die."

Scorpius looked closer at the ropes binding him. "Now that you mention it, they look kind of familiar. Was Mother making him clean out the closet of Dark artifacts again?"

She nodded.

"And you have the antidote we need, I hope?"

Rose nodded again. "It's in my antidote drawer somewhere. I believe it's purple."

"What is _wrong _with you two?" Lily demanded shrilly. She was clearly at the end of her tether. "Normal people don't keep Dark artifacts around the house or have entire _drawers _of antidotes."

Amused, but hiding it from all but Rose, Scorpius asked in a perfectly serious voice, "But then what do normal people do when poisoned?"

Lily screeched in frustration.

"If you let Scorpius go, I'll send a letter to cancel the grant," Rose said calmly. "But you need to know that to him, you're just an acquisition. He wanted arm candy to show off at his fancy awards ceremonies and dinners, and the female Potter was the perfect candidate."

"You don't know that!"

"I don't, but you at least suspect it. You didn't deny it."

While Rose argued with her cousin, she watched Scorpius wiggle his hands free from his bindings. Lily hadn't used any magic to tie him to the chair, just regular knots. Scorpius was very adept at wiggling his way out of bindings.

"I didn't deny it because I shouldn't have to! Just bring him back."

"Get me a piece of parchment and a quill and I'll write a letter to cancel the grant," Rose said with a sigh. It was a shame Davis hadn't been eaten by a snake, but it was always possible that he had contracted some kind of nasty tropical illness on his trip. Rose could only hope.

Scowling, Lily stomped from the room to find some parchment.

Rose took the opportunity to jump from her seat and help Scorpius free himself from the ropes.

"We always have so much fun when your family comes to visit."

As they made their way across the room to press themselves on either side of the doorway Lily was going to use when she re-enter the room, Rose glared at him. "Need I remind you of the last time your mum made your father clean out the Dark artifacts closet? I spent the day unable to lower my arms and you spent it certain that walking through a doorway would bring about the end of the world."

"Some of those non deadly artifacts are a little strange."

Lily came back through the doorway then, her wand raised protectively in front of her. She may have been braced for an attack, but she wasn't prepared for someone to simply pluck her wand right out of her fingers.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: Hello readers! I'm doing pretty well with this consistent updating. **

**As always, thanks to the wonderful people who review! Not only do you make fanfiction more fun, you also inspire me to write better or at least spend more time screwing with word order to make things sound less awkward.**

**~Frosty**

"Here's how this is going to work," Rose said to her cousin as she fished around in Lily's pockets for her and Scorpius' wands. "I'll write the letter to get Davis sent back here, but only because I now see that distancing you from him isn't going to make you understand what a giant wanker he is. Also, I recently discovered that the number of people consumed by snakes in the Amazon isn't as high as I had originally thought."

Scorpius shook his head at her and tried to suppress a grin while Lily just changed some interesting colours in anger. Together, Rose and Scorpius herded Lily over to a sofa where they made her wait while Rose wrote and posted the letter that would bring Dr. Davis home.

"There," Rose said once everyone had their wands back. "Can you leave now? I've had a busy day and I still have an antidote to hunt for."

"I can take care of myself, Rose," Lily snapped. "I'll leave, but if my husband doesn't write to me that he's coming home in the next few days, I'm going to be back here and I won't be as nice with my demands next time."

Once she had stormed out and slammed the door, Rose sagged into the sofa and Scorpius joined her.

"We're definitely having the wards exclude her specifically form setting foot anywhere on our property," Scorpius commented.

Rose hummed her agreement with her eyes closed. Her day had been a perfect example of why she didn't have a job. There just weren't enough hours in the day to handle everything her family threw at her _and _earn money. It couldn't be done.

"Do you want to explain the half naked rock star in the basement?" Scorpius asked, jolting Rose out of the little doze she'd fallen into while leaning against him. He was just so warm and it was so cold outside. It was enough to make anyone drowsy.

"Hy either needs to get control of her temper or stop sleeping with arseholes. He's going to stay in the basement until he either agrees that there's no need for him to press charges or I can think up a decent plan that doesn't end with Hy in jail." She yawned, her jaw cracking. "I told my mum today that we were getting married. I think she's agreed to help your mum plan the wedding. If we play our cards right, neither of us will have to give our input for anything."

"We can only hope," he said. Grabbing her hand, Scorpius pulled her to her feet. "Come on, let's go find that antidote before I start showing symptoms."

* * *

"What are you doing?" Scorpius asked the next morning, surprised that Rose was awake and moving while he got ready for work.

Rose emerged from the bathroom fully dressed in the respectable brown suit and heels from Hy. She'd even put on some makeup and wrestled her hair up into a bun on top of her head. If she squinted her eyes right, she almost looked like a serious businesswoman, the kind who definitely didn't have an angry rock star trapped in the basement.

She made a mental note to ask Hobitha to feed Amp. People would get the wrong idea if Rose forgot to feed him and she suddenly had a _dead _rock star in her basement.

"I'm going to work," she said with great dignity, an illusion that was ruined somewhat when Scorpius snorted.

Rose threw back her shoulders and glared at him. "Is it so hard to believe that someone would hire me?"

"Of course not. If you wanted to, you could get anyone to hire you and probably not even by using underhanded methods. It's the actual working that I don't think you can do. You'll get bored and start playing mind games with your coworkers." He scanned her from top to bottom. "Plus you only have that one work outfit, and I remember seeing it on Hy a few months ago. If you had a serious job, you'd buy your own clothes instead of borrowing Hy's like you do for schemes."

Most people were wary around her because they were never sure what she was really thinking. Sometimes it was frustrating for her to live with Scorpius, the one person who didn't see her as a threat and could almost always figure out what she was up to.

Scorpius put a hand on her cheek and then threaded it back into her hair, using the grip to tilt her head up for a kiss. She let herself lean against him and enjoy the kiss. With everything she had going on with her of late, she just hadn't had time for them to enjoy each other. They were recently engaged and Rose couldn't recall if they'd even properly celebrated their engagement. She added some alone time with Scorpius to her mental list of things she needed to do.

"I love you," he said when he pulled away. "Have fun at work and try not to get fired."

"Hey, I can have a real job for a while!" she yelled after him as he fled the room laughing at her.

She was widely feared, her name cursed in some parts of the magical world. At home though, she was mocked! Scorpius' next meal was definitely going to contain a heaping helping of cleverly concealed cinnamon.

When she emerged from the fireplace in the Ministry, she was still frowning. She could hold down a soul crushing, boring job for a while if she wanted. This one time, Scorpius was wrong.

"Do you have something for me already?" Ron asked when Rose pushed open the door to his office. A confused expression washed over his face when he saw what she was wearing. "Did someone die? Is there a funeral I don't know about?" He stood from his desk and started gathering his robes. "I'm always the last to know these things!"

"No one died," she snapped, annoyed that her dad didn't think she was any more capable of holding a job than Scorpius did. "I'm here to look into your problem. The easiest way for me to do that is for me to blend in with the other bureaucratic minions to get an idea of how things really work around here."

"Rose, I don't have the budget to hire you."

"You don't need to actually hire me, just let me pretend that I work here until I can find the missing files."

Ron leaned back in his chair and studied his daughter. "You're not to cause unnecessary trouble in my department."

"I know, I know. Get in, find the information I need, and get out again. This isn't the first time I've done reconnaissance, Daddy."

"What else have you - never mind, I don't really want to know." He shook his head and visibly urged himself to move on to other topics. "Your mother tells me you're getting married."

She presented her left hand, now sporting the beautiful engagement ring Scorpius had given her. It had belonged to his great grandmother and Scorpius said that he suspected the ring had some magical properties, but wasn't sure exactly what it did. It probably wasn't going to kill her and finding out was part of the whole adventure. Maybe it would magically plan the wedding for her so she didn't have to deal with the trouble.

"I'm happy for you, Rose. It's about time you two got married."

She smiled. "We would have done it as soon as we graduated, but neither one of us wanted to deal with the actual wedding part of the occasion."

"Giving your mother and Astoria the reins was a good idea. You two are going to be lucky if you get to pick what you wear on the day."

"Of course it was a good idea, it was mine." She stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, boss, I have to get to work."

"Go easy on my employees, they're not used to you," Ron called after her.

Go easy on them. Rose shook her head as she exited his office; she didn't go easy on people, they either got used to her or she bowled them right over.

Only the high level Aurors got their own offices, everyone else was in the middle of a very large room with the occasional half wall giving some semblance of privacy. Rose scanned the room and found her target quickly.

"Albus, so wonderful to see you," she said as she perched on the edge of his desk.

He looked up from the form he'd been scowling at and didn't change his expression. "Why are you here sitting on my desk and what in the world are you wearing?"

Hopping off the desk, Rose did a little twirl. "This is my business attire. I'm wearing it because I have a new job. Here."

"Rose, whatever you're actually here for, don't mess up this job for me. I'm barely out of my Auror training; I can't afford to have you making trouble as soon as I get my own desk."

"Stop being such a worrier." Rose dragged a nearby chair to the edge of Albus' desk and looked over the forms he'd been struggling to complete when she found him.

Always with an abundance of energy, the paperwork side of his job had to be killing Albus. She grabbed his forms and flipped them around so they were right side up.

"You tell me how to fill out these forms properly and I'll do the writing for you."

She knew she had him when Albus sagged in relief. He pushed his chair back from his desk and started spinning as he recited information, already looking a lot happier.

Rose and Albus quickly worked their way through what Rose suspected what months of paperwork, much to her cousin's relief. This exercise benefitted both cousins in that Albus got a little reprieve from his paperwork and Rose got to look like she was busy while actually learning a wide array of the office's paperwork and filing system.

"Why are you really here?" Albus asked as she filled out the very last form. Rose had learned enough that she barely needed any input from her cousin to finish it.

She moved to the unoccupied desk beside Albus' and started going through the drawers. Upon finding a bag of candy, she stole a handful.

"My boring life of stay at home girlfriend was starting to get to me. I needed to get out and keep my mind sharp."

"I know for a fact that you're busier unemployed than most people are with jobs. _Don't eat those_." Albus watched her for a moment with resignation as she continued to munch on the snack. He gave up on scolding her and tried a different topic. "Have you heard from my sister lately? I know she was pretty upset when she found out that you had something to do with the long absence of Dr. Davis." He said the Doctor's name with as much contempt as Rose usually did. No one in their family really liked the arrogant arsehole.

"She broke into my house last night and tied Scorpius to a chair with poisonous ropes, holding him hostage until I wrote a letter to have Davis brought back here."

Albus blinked, surprised. "Lily brought poisonous ropes?"

"No, we had those lying around."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Not really." Rose glanced around the office to see if anyone was paying her any attention. It appeared that most of the office had disappeared on their lunch break. Clearly she'd found the perfect time to go through everyone's desks. Maybe there'd be more snacks.

"Tell me everything you know about how this office runs."

Albus nodded his head towards a desk that was bigger than the others and had a view of the entire room. "That's Carol's desk. She's the one who processes all of our paperwork and is in charge of the filing room."

He then moved on to describe everything he knew about everyone at the office.

* * *

Rose mulled over what she had learned from her cousin as she walked out of the Ministry. She hadn't lasted very long after her lunch break, but it wasn't her fault. Astoria had sent her an urgent owl asking for her to come and meet her at a new cafe in Diagon Alley.

While Rose had her suspicions about the meeting, she was more than willing to get out of the office. She'd been there long enough to have a few theories about what was happening there.

From what Albus had told her, Carol was the one who ran the office behind the scenes. She was middle aged, slightly overweight, and judging from the many pictures on her desk, owned more than one cat. What Rose had learned from watching the woman was that she was also having an affair with one of the married Aurors and that they liked to do inappropriate things in the file room. Rose wasn't sure if this was something that would interest her father, who only cared about his files being returned to where they should be, but it was definitely a start.

When Rose passed the window of the cafe and saw that Astoria was accompanied by Hermione, she knew that her suspicions about this meeting were correct. It was some kind of wedding planning ambush.

She entered the cafe, the jingling bells of the shop drawing the attention of the two women intent on forcing Rose to take part in the planning of her own wedding. It was like they were punishing her for something.

Standing at the edge of their table, Rose crossed her arms. "I'm not sitting down until the both of you give me your word that there will be no fabric samples or bridal magazines pushed on me or even brought out into the light of day."

"You're actually dressed presentably," Hermione observed as Rose pulled up a chair. "Is it possible you have a job?"

Rose glanced down at her outfit and then smiled at her mum. "Only because the rock star I have locked in my basement is costing me more than I anticipated and I need to be able to support him long-term. It's important to have goals. You taught me that."

"Please tell me you're kidding," Hermione begged, pale with dread. Astoria just sat there shaking her head.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: Hello readers! There's snow on the ground and it's quite exciting. My favourite part (since there's not enough for a snowman) is watching the cat try and keep all of her feet in the tiny patches without any snow. Plus it's sparkly. I like sparkly.**

**Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to review! Special thanks to SapphireWolf15 for pointing out, among other things, the complete lack of fluff so far. I'm looking in to putting more in as I got and this chapter is almost 1000 words longer because of it.**

**~Frosty**

"I heard you only lasted half a day at your new job," Scorpius said as soon as Rose returned home.

Rose threw one of the evil high heeled shoes at him. "I probably would have lasted a full day if both our mothers hadn't decided to ambush me about our wedding. Nothing productive could have possibly happened after that."

Of course, Scorpius was ready for the shoe projectile and easily dodged it. "Did you have time to read the paper today while you were working and fending off the combined persuasive powers of our mothers?"

"You laugh now, but I've insisted that your wedding robes be powder blue."

Scorpius didn't rise to the bait, just waited. He was probably thinking that the colour would look better on him than her. Stupid monochrome jerk.

He grabbed her when she started to lean down for her other shoe and held on, partially for self-preservation, but it was still a hug. It was just what she'd needed after spending more time than she would have liked negotiating wedding details with the combined forces of their mothers.

Rose didn't struggle. She wasn't angry enough with him to give up on the comfort of a hug she really needed. It was the least he could do since the wedding was partially his fault. Her head leant against him for a moment as she hugged him back.

"Yes, I read the paper," she finally sighed. "People are starting to look for Amp. Hy will be questioned and she'll say she hasn't seen him since he finished with her and left. I'll have him out of the basement before anyone thinks to check there, and he'll pretend that he's been on a bender."

"You think that's going to work?"

"That's only plan A. I have a few other options, but they'll take more effort and I just don't have the time right now."

Later, Rose lay sprawled out on the floor in front of the warm fire with stacks of parchment covered in scribbled notes about various plots. Scorpius, who almost always kept his work during work hours and actually had more free time than Rose, sat on the sofa reading some big, complicated banking book that Rose had been sure he only owned for the purpose of hiding things. She'd checked though, and there was nothing concealed in that book except possibly the driest text she'd ever scanned.

Her quill stopped as she frowned down at the letter she'd been writing. "How do you say 'Next time it will be more than your Pomeranian on fire' in French?" Scorpius raised his eyebrows and Rose was quick to reassure, "Don't worry, the flames only tickled the dog, but they were quite alarming for both him and his owner."

Rolling his eyes to the ceiling and not bothering to ask, Scorpius translated for her and then watched her as she wrote. She held up the letter so he could check that she'd copied it down correctly and then went back to her other letters when he nodded and continued with his reading for a while.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him set the book on the sofa beside him. That was when she knew something was off. She stood as soon as the letter was finished and joined him. Without the heat of the fire, she wanted to snuggle against him, but she had a feeling that she should hear what he had to say first.

"Why are you making the bad news face at me?" she asked.

"You're going to have to execute your plans without me. Father has a business trip to Norway and has asked me to accompany him. I would have said no but I think he's concerned for his safety."

"I told you he was doing business with criminals lately," she commented. Of course, she was disappointed and would miss him, but she'd be fine after rearranging a few schemes. She suddenly perked up a little. "If you give me a few hours to get rid of the rock star, everything else will hold for a while. I could come with you and help."

Her mind drifted as she started planning in her head. She was going to have to talk to Draco to get everything he knew about the criminals he was meeting. Scorpius was less likely to tell her the whole truth if he thought she'd use it to get herself in trouble.

A sharp tug on one of her curls had her once more focused on Scorpius, this time with a frown. He tended to tug her hair to get her attention when she was lost in her plotting. Oftentimes, the sharp tug jolted her enough that she lost her train of thought, something she hated. Scorpius knew this and did it anyway.

"You can't come," he said firmly. "I don't want an international incident on our hands. Besides, I should only be gone for a few days. I think – _hope _– you can keep yourself out of trouble for at least that long."

"You're leaving now, aren't you?" she asked. He had a nasty habit of telling her about this type of thing without giving her time to shift the circumstances to suit her. Rose would have tried to put a stop to it, but when she had little to do, it sometimes entertained her to plot against Scorpius so it was only fair that she allow him to plot against her as well.

He nodded.

Rose stood and tugged on his sleeve. "I'm assuming you've left yourself time for a proper send off?"

"I wasn't sure I was going to get one for a moment there." He chuckled at the look she gave him and then allowed himself to be led to the bedroom.

They still weren't the gentle type, either of them. Neither of them were hesitant either, both taking what they wanted. It worked for them though; had one of them tried a relationship with a meek, caring soul, either one of them would have torn the caring soul apart from the inside. It wouldn't have been pretty.

In their own way though, they were more functional together than they could ever manage to be apart.

* * *

Rose had been planning to take Scorpius to the gambling den with her. She could read people really well, so she was skilled at poker, but Scorpius could do that _and _he could count cards. It wasn't a skill he got to exercise with any frequency, so he was usually pleased to give his skills a workout.

She was going to have to put that plan on hold for a while. Scorpius was always a little touchy about her going to places like gambling dens by herself. Her personality was the type that frequently got her in trouble and he didn't like her being without backup.

Once Scorpius had packed a bag and left for his trip, Rose made her way down to the basement to see how her pet rock star was doing. She was upset that Scorpius was gone, of course, but she wasn't the type to wallow in sadness just because she was without her significant other for a while. There was just too much to do for her to be wallowing.

"You can't just keep a person trapped in your basement!" Amp shouted at her as soon as she opened the door.

Rose sighed, having hoped that he would have been more receptive to her suggestions. "You're never going to change your mind about the pressing charges thing, are you?" she asked, carefully blank.

"Are you insane? I'm going to make sure you burn for this, witch."

Seating herself on the top stair, Rose rested her arms on her knees. This man lived to intimidate people with his fame and money, but he seemed to be having trouble understanding that she was difficult to intimidate. He was barefoot in her basement and without a weapon, yet he was still speaking as if he held all the cards when really, Rose had all the power.

"Look," Rose said in her most persuasive tone, "If you're not going to cooperate with me, I'm going to have to start considering my other options. You don't want me thinking about alternate options. It won't end well for you."

Finally, _finally, _she seemed to be getting to him. Amp's face paled slightly before he arranged his face into a sneer of distaste.

"I'm not afraid of you. In fact –" He took a few steps towards her, presumably with the intent to intimidate. Unfortunately for him, Rose was armed and he was just a sad little man. "I think you're going to let me out of this basement. This isn't going to end well for you or your slag of a friend. If you let me go now, I'll think about having your sentence in Azkaban reduced."

Disgusted with him, Rose let herself out of the room without saying anything further. It was time for option two.

"I see Scorpius didn't get around to updating the wards," Rose said when she emerged from the basement to find that Lily was in her house.

"Why haven't I heard from my husband yet?" Lily demanded. She was definitely frazzled and still wearing her work clothes. If Rose had to guess, she'd say that Lily hadn't even been home yet, she'd gone straight from work to Rose's house.

"Possibly because it takes longer than a day for an owl to cross an ocean."

Lily narrowed her eyes. "You get away with far too much because people are afraid that you're going to retaliate against them. Well, I'm not afraid of you."

Her claim was weakened somewhat by the way she couldn't quite meet Rose's eyes. Instead of throwing her out like Rose half wanted to do, she came up with a better idea.

Lily was wary when she saw Rose's shark smile. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Scorpius is on a business trip with his father, which interferes with my plans because he doesn't like me doing things that are potentially dangerous by myself." Her smile widened, making Lily visibly suppress a shudder. "But if you're going to be with me, then I'm hardly on my own, and Scorpius can't say a word to me about charging off alone and getting myself in trouble."

"I'm not going along with any of your plans."

"I think you are."

Twenty minutes later, Hy looked Lily up and down. She'd already done Rose's hair and makeup, leaving the redhead to struggle into the tight dress Hy lent her while her friend turned on Lily.

"I never agreed to this," Lily grumbled as she swatted at Hy, who was trying to make her pretty like her cousin.

"Rose is good like that," Hy said. "One moment you're telling her no way in hell and a few sentences later she has you thinking that what she's asking is perfectly logical and legal."

"I have to send a quick letter," Rose said as she slipped from the room.

The complaints from Lily stopped as she contemplated Hy's words and tried to figure out where exactly Rose had changed her mind. She was so lost in thought that she allowed Hy to finish doing her hair and makeup without further complaint.

"She reminded me how disappointed in me the family would be if something happened to her because she was doing dangerous things without backup, and then I'm not sure what happened." Lily frowned as she tried to remember her cousin's exact wording and ended up giving up with a head shake. "She should have been a politician."

"No fun in that," Rose said, breezing back into the room. "It's all stodgy old men and woman with sticks up their arses so big they can barely sit. My life is much more fun."

She twirled in front of the full length mirror, leaning over to examine the full effect of her cleavage and then her butt.

"I look like a hooker," she said with admiration. It was the perfect costume for what she had planned.

Lily turned side to side to take in the full effect of her own transformation. "I wish my husband were here. He'd love this outfit. Don't you wish Scorpius was here, Rose?"

The pointed comment didn't have the guilt inducing effect Lily had intended. Rose didn't even have to lie to her cousin.

"Scorpius hates it when I dress like this because it's never for his benefit. He likes me best in simple lingerie without anything in my hair. He complains that hair styling potions make his hands itchy when he tries to put them through my curls."

"You two are so weird," Lily grumbled.

Hy though, she was nodding along with her friend. "Scorpius always did complain on those few occasions I had to come over here to help you flaunt your assets. I think that's part of why he dislikes me so much."

"That and the fact that you spent a good portion of your childhood forcing him to spend time with you and telling him that you two were going to be married some day," Rose said.

Wrinkling her nose at the memory, Hy nodded. "I was so young and impressionable. Imagine me being satisfied with one man for the rest of my life. I'd die of boredom."

"You're all strange. And I didn't agree to this!"

* * *

"I don't even know how to play cards," Lily whispered frantically while Rose tipped the man guarding the door at the gambling house where Hugo had lost his deed.

"Just think of Hugo," Rose responded, her lips not moving at all as she kept a smile on her face – one that didn't show teeth.

"You never even explained to me how this relates to your brother!"

Rose stopped just inside the door and scanned the room. There were the usual desperate people, frantically trying to make back the money that they had lost. There were also quite a few people who were clearly looking for a thrill and a place to spend some of their extra disposable income. Neither of these types were who Rose was looking for. She immediately zeroed in on a middle aged man in the corner who seemed to be surveying the room as he counted stacks of coins.

One of the men at a poker table gave her the subtlest of nods. Rose's eyes skipped right over him, and she didn't react, not wanting anyone to notice the interaction. Lily was completely oblivious to the whole exchange.

If she had to hazard a guess, Rose would say that Mr. Moneystacks in the corner was the person she needed to talk to about Hugo's house.

"Rose, I don't think we should be walking up to that man," Lily murmured. "He looks like he could kill us and not care in the least."

She ignored her cousin and smiled at the man counting money.

"Hi," Rose said with uncharacteristic cheeriness. She patiently waited until he stopped ignoring her for the money before she tilted to give him a better look at her cleavage. Anything to draw his attention away from the conversation. "My brother lost a house to you and I'd like to pay to get it back."

"I don't know who you've been talking to, but it doesn't work that way here," he said. There was a scar through one of his eyebrows that may have been attractive on a person who bore less of a resemblance to dead fish. His eyes were just a little too clouded and his skin too scaly for him to ever qualify as attractive.

Rose hefted a large bag of gold that she'd brought from the emergency trunk she and Scorpius kept at their house for situations just such as this one. "I'm willing to part with a considerable sum to have the house returned to my brother."

His greedy little eyes lit up. "I'd be willing to consider a little wager for it."

"What kind of wager?"

"If you can double that bag at a blackjack table, then I'll consider some kind of exchange."

Blackjack. Scorpius just had to go on vacation when she needed his card counting skills. When he returned from the trip, Rose was definitely going to tell him how much easier this whole thing would have been if he had just been there.

Rose glanced over her shoulder at her cousin. "Any chance you're any good at blackjack?"

"I've never gambled before in my life."

"Shame."

Behind her back, Rose gestured to the man at the poker table. He'd been keeping an eye on her and didn't miss the gesture. He subtly excused himself from his table and slipped out the back exit.

"I think I'll take you up on that," Rose said. She made her way over to one of the blackjack tables.

"Rose, what are you doing? I thought you couldn't play blackjack." Lily was looking anxious. She kept darting gazes around the room like she expected someone to grab her, drag her in a back alley, and steal all her money. Some people really weren't meant for Rose's kind of fun.

"I play it," she whispered back, "I just can't cheat like Scorpius does."

"What, exactly is the plan then? You're more likely to lose money than gain any, and doubling it is even more unlikely."

Rose rolled her eyes at her cousin. "If I stopped to explain every nuance of my plan, we'd be here forever. You're going to have to trust me. Now shut your mouth and look pretty."

For ten minutes, Rose smiled, made her bets and lost some money. She chatted with the people at the table with her, learning as much as she could about them without revealing anything significant about herself. Anyone who read the papers could probably guess who she was since she had appeared from time to time in them. The magical community wasn't very large, so it was difficult for true anonymity.

Rose wasn't concerned about being recognised; she wasn't planning on returning.

"EVERYBODY FREEZE!" bellowed a magically enhanced voice from the front of the building.

All movement in the room stopped for the briefest of moments and then there was a scramble for the exit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A/N: Hello readers! I was a little disappointed that I only got 4 reviews for the last chapter. I always assume it's a reflection on the quality of the writing. Was chapter 5 not very good?**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Here's the next chapter.**

**~Frosty**

Rose stayed seated and enjoyed the chaos as a room full of criminals all tried to fit out the door at once. She only turned her attention from her observation for a moment to grab her cousin's arm as Lily tried to flee with everyone else.

"You're going to want to stay in here," Rose said calmly. "There are more Aurors waiting out back to ambush the people who try to escape and I'm not sure the family would ever forgive me if I got you cursed in the crossfire of a scheme."

When spells started to fly as the more criminals realized that they were going to have to fight their way past the Aurors if they wanted to leave, Lily dove under the table. Rose though, didn't want to miss anything. She stayed in her seat, only using her wand to deflect spells that would have hit her or her cousin. It was more fun than she'd had in a while, and her only regret was that Scorpius wasn't there to see it with her.

The fight was brief, settling down as the last gambler was apprehended with an impressive flying tackle from an Auror new enough to still be overly enthusiastic about the job. It had only been a few moments between when the Aurors burst in and the fighting stopped. Lily looked the worse for the wear, her hair sticking to her sweaty forehead and her wide eye made her eyeliner appear even more garish than it had when she'd maintained her usual complexion.

At least she wasn't crying. Rose really hated it when people cried just when things got interesting.

Ron was the last one in the room, and he didn't look happy about being there.

"Rose Weasley, what do you think you're doing?" Ron boomed. His voice wasn't magically enhanced anymore, but it might as well have been. He'd spent his entire life yelling over a bunch of rowdy siblings. When he wanted to be loud, he was more than capable of blowing a few eardrums.

Bringing out the innocent, wide-eyed blinking technique she hadn't used on her father since she was in school, Rose directed the entire force of her contrived expression towards the angry Auror. "Daddy, I'm working for you now. I just couldn't stand to ignore all of this lawbreaking happening right in front of me."

"You knew this was going to happen?" Lily yelled, emerging from under the table and startling Ron.

Loud, sudden noises were definitely a bad idea in a room full of Aurors on the alert for an attack. There were instantly four different wands trained on Lily and waiting for her to make one wrong room. Rose wouldn't have thought it possible that Lily pale further, but it happened.

"I may have sent an owl before our little adventure in the event something went wrong," Rose said to her cousin. She turned to address her father. "I had someone here before we arrived who had instructions to alert the Aurors in the event that something went wrong or if I gave the signal."

Rose glanced down. She chose not to mention that he was wearing one slipper and one shoe. There were times when she could push her father and times when it was best to keep her mouth shut.

"Do you know how dangerous this is?" Ron demanded through gritted teeth. He should be careful, it really wasn't good for him to wear on the enamel of his teeth like that. If her grandma and grandpa Granger were there, they would have said the same thing.

"Everything was under control." She looked around at the chaos and then shrugged. "As in control as this kind of thing can be.

Ron muttered something under his breath, but Rose didn't catch it. Probably for the best.

"There's something I need," Rose said, hopping down from her stool. Conveniently, Lily burst into tears at that moment. She couldn't have timed it better if Rose had given Lily a signal.

While Ron busied himself with stopping his niece from breaking down in front of a room of Aurors, Rose slipped into the back room. It was the place she'd assumed that Mr. Moneypiles would have stored the deed to Hugo's house, but she searched it and tried several summoning spells with no results.

Her dad found her quicker than she would have liked.

"You are so lucky that Harry and Ginny are on vacation this week," Ron said, his voice just short of a bellow. "You brought their good little girl into a horrible place like this. What if something had gone wrong with our raid and help hadn't come?"

Rose shrugged. "Then I would have lost more money playing blackjack and then we would have left. Neither of us were in much danger."

"This is why I hate it when Scorpius leaves the country," Ron grumbled. "It's like you lose all sense of restraint."

She was going to object to the statement, but Rose thought it over for a second and realized that she did tend to do her riskier schemes when Scorpius was away. Though, to be fair, most of the schemes became riskier the second Scorpius was removed from the equation. If he had been here with him, she wouldn't have had to call the Aurors at all.

"Am I free to go or are you going to arrest me?"

Ron rubbed a hand through his thinning hair. "I can't keep overlooking the laws you break, Rosie. Eventually, I'm going to have to arrest you for one of these little schemes of yours."

"Then I'll just have to be more careful, won't I?"

Lily's tears had stopped by the time Rose returned to the main room. Someone, probably one of the Aurors, had found her a blanket to wrap around her shoulders, making her look more pathetic with her running mascara and shivers. In her place, Rose would have toned it down a little, but that was just her own artistic interpretation.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Rose asked.

Lily blinked, her eyelashes spiky and sticky with tears and leftover mascara. "We get to leave, just like that?"

"Of course. We're only here as part of the Auror strike. Our testimony is going to be helpful when they need to prove without a doubt that there was gambling happening here." Rose said this with the perfect, wide-eyed innocence that used to work on her father all the time.

"I just want to go home," Lily said in a small voice.

Rose took mental notes so she'd be able to imitate it at a later date. Apparently, Lily was better at the vulnerability thing than Rose would have ever given her credit for, though she could definitely tone it down a little.

"You can't go home quite yet, there's something back at my house that I forgot to give you earlier."

Pliant in her numbness, Lily blindly allowed Rose to Apparate them back to her house.

"What am I here for?" Lily asked shakily as Rose rifled through one of her kitchen drawers. "And what's that banging sound?"

"You're here because you touched those poisonous ropes and I want to make sure you're not going to die in a week." Rose finally found the vial she'd been searching for in her antidote drawer. She handed it to Lily and watched until Lily took a mouthful of it and swallowed. "The banging is the rock star I have locked in the basement. He objects to his confinement. Don't worry; I'm working on sorting out that whole mess."

"I don't know how Scorpius lives with you with all of these crazy things happening around you all the time."

"Scorpius enjoys the variety. It's never boring around here." Rose was surprised that Lily thought Scorpius would be as opposed to her type of excitement as a normal person would be. He enjoyed it just as much as Rose. "In fact, if Scorpius had been here, he would have been able to win at blackjack and I wouldn't have needed to call the Aurors."

"He lets you be yourself," Lily stated, looking like she was going to start tearing up again. "And he does it because he loves you."

"Yes?" Rose was a little confused where her cousin was going with her statements, but she really didn't want it to lead to more tears. Maybe she could stun Lily and drop her off somewhere?

"I'm not sure my husband loves me." The words were so quiet that Rose nearly missed them. Lily was in shock and vulnerable, so Rose didn't immediately suggest that they arrange to have him eaten by a snake, even though that was definitely what was running through her mind.

Awkwardly, Rose patted Lily on the back. "If you still feel that way about him when he gets back, divorce him. I can make him disappear." Her eyes lit up as she started warming to the idea. "He could get lost in one of those forests that he's always studying. He'd be able to spend all of his time with his favourite person, himself. Only until something ate him, of course."

Lily made a squeak of distress and fled to the fireplace, where she immediately jumped into the Floo network.

Rose was going to have to work on reigning in her enthusiasm for the destruction of Lily's husband. Not everyone appreciated her vicious streak like Scorpius did.

* * *

"Scorpius is cheating on you," Albus blurted the moment Rose reported to the Auror office early the next morning.

Rose calmly took another sip of her coffee. As it was her second day on the job, Rose was no longer looking to make a good impression and had relaxed enough to wear her own clothing. She had on a simple skirt and blouse with her hair still in a tight bun. She'd foregone makeup that morning. It wasn't going to do her much good and she hated the goopy stuff.

"Elaborate," she ordered her cousin as she settled into the spare chair that she'd claimed as hers.

"I can do better than that." Albus reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a glossy, moving picture. She'd been through his desk recently, so she knew it hadn't been there yesterday.

Scorpius was dressed up and seated in a fancy restaurant across from a laughing middle-eastern woman in a beautiful sequined dress. As she watched, photo Scorpius ran a gentle hand down the woman's cheek. While she was never one to doubt her physical appearance, the woman in the picture was a level of stunning that could make any woman feel inferior in her presence.

"Why do you not look angry?" Albus demanded. "It worries me that you're not angrier. You're not going to kill him, are you?"

"Don't be silly." She put the picture down on his desk and then flipped it over so she didn't have to watched Scorpius flirt with some other woman. "I don't kill people. Besides, Scorpius would never cheat on me. I'll ask him what really happened when he gets home."

Albus looked disappointed, immediately making Rose suspicious.

"How is it that you managed to get your hands on these pictures?" she asked.

"The Ministry is very interested in what's happening in Norway with the Malfoys. While they're no longer known to be involved in any serious crime, they do occasionally dip a toe back into that world. That woman in the picture with Scorpius, she's an assassin, and the man Draco met with is a known associate of hers specializing in money laundering."

Rose had learned her lesson about bursting into plans after they'd already been put in motion back at Hogwarts. The knowledge of how wrong what Scorpius had planned could go if she went over there demanding to help was the only thing that kept her from doing so.

"Rose," Ron called out of his office door.

After getting him up so late the previous night, Rose figured it was best that she didn't keep him waiting.

There were dark bags under his eyes as Ron slumped at his desk. He was still wearing one shoe and one slipper. Apparently he hadn't had time to go back home after Rose had handed him such a large bust.

"Have you read the paper this morning?" he asked.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Clearly she was going to have to try harder to distance herself from the media and the kind of stories that were destined to make the paper. She could do something mundane like open a flower shop and spend her days pruning the thorns off of roses so her customers didn't prick themselves.

Instead of answering her, Ron just pushed the paper towards her. There on the page was a picture of the man locked in Rose's basement. It seemed that people were finally noticing that he was missing.

"I thought this was harmless," Ron said. "Some rock star that indulged himself a little too much and then got separated from the team of people that are paid to wait on him at all times. But then Lily came to visit me after having read it. She said you mentioned something in passing that, when combined with this story, is really worrying."

"Are you accusing me?" she asked with a little disbelieving giggle that actually killed a part of her soul.

The effort was wasted; Ron didn't look like he was reassured. "I want a straight answer, Rose."

"Don't be ridiculous, Daddy. Where in the world would I have acquired a rock star?"

"Rose, tell me you don't have a rock star in your basement."

She met his eyes unflinchingly. "Of course not. I'm sure he'll turn up in Thailand after taking a few too many drugs with no memory of his trip. You know rock stars."

"That was worryingly specific - Where are you going?" Ron asked as she backed out of his office.

"I'm taking an early lunch."

"It's nine in the morning!"

Rose stopped at Albus' desk and grabbed the photo of Scorpius and the beautiful woman on her way out of the office.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**A/N: Hello readers! There's mention of a sign in this that actually made me cringe to write. Just so you know. I'm betting reading it might make a few of you cringe as well. I share your pain, but it amused me so it's in here.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

Sometimes, Rose knew, persuasion and bribery just couldn't convince someone to change their mind. She had numerous other options for such ornery individuals, but sometimes drastic measures needed to be taken.

While Rose was confident that it would be a long while before someone came to search her house looking for the captive rock star, she needed to be rid of him. Talking her way out of trouble was a skill of Rose's, and she could probably get away without doing any time in Azkaban, but the criminal record would completely ruin her credibility in the event that she ever again needed to keep someone in her basement for a while.

As a general rule, Rose tried to avoid Knockturn Alley. She was the daughter of two war heroes, and no matter how well she fit in with the shady people of the dark alley, to them, she would always be the glowing daughter of two people who represented the law and everything it stands for. This, combined with her bright red hair, made it a little difficult for her to properly blend in with the crowds in the alley.

A long, dark cloak with a hood pulled practically pulled down over her eyes made it a little more difficult for people to recognise her, but she still got a few strange looks from anyone who happened to catch sight of her face.

It was easy enough for her to fix.

She scanned the people passing her, eyes stopping on the biggest, angriest looking man in the crowd. Almost compulsively, he kept patting the breast pocket of his robes, where there was something large making the fabric bulge. Whatever was there was important to him.

Luckily, he was close to her, so she only had to pretend to stumble to get close enough to pick his pocket. Rose didn't even take a look at the object before slipping it into the pocket of one of the people glaring at her and whispering.

"Thief!" she yelled, pointing at the former whisperer. Now the man just stared at her, stricken and bewildered.

Predictably, the paranoid man she'd stolen from patted his pocket and then panicked when he found it missing. Rose smiled and continued down the alley unobserved as Mr. Paranoid tackled the smaller man behind her.

The shop she entered was, on the outside, one of the least welcoming places on the entire street. With grimy windows and somehow more caked on soot and assorted grime than all the rest of the businesses surrounding it, _Poshuns fer Evry Okashun _was a place that Rose only ever visited when she needed brews that one couldn't exactly purchase from legal vendors.

"Your sign is all wrong," someone was telling the proprietor of the store when Rose entered.

She moved towards one of the more interesting aisles at the front of the store. It was stocked with ingredients for potions, but these ingredients were still alive. Large bins were filled with various different coloured insects, from the jewel bright to flat blacks and boring browns. The grasshoppers were her favourite to watch. They were just so bouncy.

"That's your opinion," the shopkeeper calmly replied.

Rose didn't really know much about the man as she'd only interacted with him on a few occasions. She did know that he'd been a few years ahead of her at Hogwarts and that there were still rumours going around about the time he brewed an Amortentia potion so strong that just looking at it too closely was enough to create the illusion of love. She believed his name was Griffin something.

"Spelling is not an opinion! I'm telling you that every word in the name of your store is spelled incorrectly."

Rolling her eyes, Rose peeked around the shelf at the woman abusing the shopkeeper. She clearly wasn't in a hurry. Something was going to have to be done if she was going to get back to the office before the work day ended.

Conjuring a scrap of parchment and a quill, Rose tapped the woman on the shoulder and handed them to her. "Why don't you write down the correct spelling and you can be on your way."

The woman huffed, looking like she was going to object. A stern look from Rose had her reconsidering. Eventually, she did as Rose suggested and then left the store with her nose in the air.

"Thanks for that," Griffin said once they were alone.

Rose glared at him. "I don't believe for a second that you can't work out how to spell those words. If you want to play stupid so people let their guards down around you, try not to let it interfere with business."

He looked surprised for a moment before smiling. "I'll take that into consideration, Ma'am. Now what can I do for you?"

"I want a baby but my fiancé is violently opposed to the idea. I need a potion that makes him more... open to suggestions."

"And I'm a Potion Master who can't spell the word 'potion.'"

Rose shrugged. "That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Now do you have a potion that can do what I want or are you going to force me to find it elsewhere?"

He looked her up and down, his eyes narrowing when they got to her face. Sometimes being recognised worked against her, but in this case it was in her favour. In certain circles Rose had a reputation for being ruthless in getting what she wanted. Judging by the way Griffin's eyes widened slightly as he recognised her, Rose was willing to bet that his was one such circle.

"I think I have something that may work for you," he said reluctantly. His eyes darted around the store like he expected his admittance to immediately trigger a team of Aurors to raid his shop.

"Will it be permanent? Because I don't want to have the baby and then lose him because he suddenly realizes that he doesn't want it."

"I do have something that's permanent, but you're risking brain damage. It's invasive to go into someone's brain and start shuffling things around to suit your needs."

Rose wasn't really concerned with Amp's brain cells. She probably should be, because he didn't seem to have many left, but she wasn't. Besides, going in there and making him think he'd done something that he'd probably done hundreds of times would be much less invasive than trying to chance influencing something much bigger like the decision not to have children.

"I'm willing to take that risk," she said with a perfectly straight face.

He wasn't happy about it and he overcharged her by quite a bit, but Griffin eventually shuffled back into his storeroom and came out with a potion.

"Don't get caught with this," he warned. "Just having the recipe is enough to get you a few years in Azkaban. I'm not positive on how long they'll keep you for possessing the stuff, but it's safe to say it'll be long enough that you'll wish you'd never even known of its existence."

Rose nodded her thanks and tucked it into her pocket.

Hobitha was just preparing something for Amp to eat as Rose came into the kitchen.

"Has he been eating the things you bring him?" Rose asked for the first time. If the man was contrary enough to go hungry while a House Elf was bringing him perfectly edible food, then it wasn't Roses problem. Now, however, she needed to know.

"He eats everything Hobitha gives him," the elf said proudly. "First he said no more broccolis and that he allergic to nuts, but now that Hobitha knows, he eats everything."

Excellent.

Rose dumped out half the glass of pumpkin juice and replaced it with the potion. The clear potion should have watered down the pumpkin juice, but it didn't. Once it had settled, the glass of pumpkin juice looked and smelled exactly as it had before Rose tampered with it. If it was brewed correctly – and it better be with the amount Rose paid – then there shouldn't be any detectable taste either.

"I'll be in the library reading," Rose said to the Elf. "Come get me when he's finished everything you brought him."

She ended up reading a good chunk of a book before Hobitha came to find her. "He finished all his food," Hobitha said with a bow.

Sticking a bookmark into her book, Rose wandered down to the basement. It was always nice to be far enough ahead of the Aurors that she didn't have to worry about rushing.

Amp was sitting on the floor, staring vacantly at the wall. He didn't even look towards her when she entered the room. Perfect, the potion had done its job. He was a blank canvas just waiting for her suggestion.

With her wand in hand on the off chance that Amp was trying to trick her into getting too close so he could overpower her, Rose sat on the floor in front of him.

"You're quite known for your substance abuse," she said conversationally. His only response was a slow blink. "You're going to wake up in Thailand with no memory of what happened to you. You will assume you were on a particularly bad drinking spree that got out of hand, nothing more."

He nodded with another slow blink. It was strange talking to him without him screaming insults at her. When drugged, he was almost good company.

While she had him as a captive audience, Rose decided to address something about him that had bothered her.

"When you wake up, it's going to be with a newfound respect for women. They are equal beings, not inferior ones."

He frowned and winced as if this instruction hurt him, but he eventually nodded. There was more risk of brain damage with that instruction since it went against his personality. Rose was willing to take that risk. Besides, in the long run, he'd be a lot happier if he didn't have hoards of offended or scorned women after him. Safer too. Really, she was doing him a favour.

Rose looked him over one last time. She liked him a lot better when he was putty in her hands, just waiting to be moulded. It was a shame she couldn't do more without arousing suspicion or leaving him brain dead.

With a sigh at the missed opportunity, Rose stood.

"Follow me, we're going to smuggle you out of the country."

He trailed after her as she led him to the fireplace.

"Hobitha," Rose called as she was about to throw her Floo powder into the flames. "I need you to erase any trace of Mr. Krafton from the house. There may be Aurors here looking for him in the near future."

The elf squeaked and then rushed to the basement, muttering about "Nasty Aurorses" the whole way.

* * *

Rose returned to the office just as most people were leaving to take their lunch.

"Rose, I need to see you in my office," Ron said at the sight of his daughter. He led her to his desk and took a seat behind it as Rose shut the door.

"What's the problem?"

"You can't just take an early lunch and disappear for half the day. People will think you're getting preferential treatment because you're my daughter."

"Feel free to tell them you've docked my pay."

Ron rubbed a hand over his face, looking like he wanted to pull at his hair. With the way he was balding though, it wasn't worth the risk. Rose tried not to snicker as she suppressed the urge to comment.

"You didn't go home to dispose of a rock star, did you?" he asked with dread.

Taking pity on him, Rose handed over the bag of goodies from the bakery she'd stopped at on her way back to the Ministry. She'd made sure to get all of his favourites and was rewarded by his face brightening slightly upon peeking into the bag.

"Those are the kind of questions you can't ask if you want Weasley dinners to be without arrests, Daddy."

Ron nearly choked on a cookie while she smiled innocently.

"Besides," she said while she patted his back, "I clearly just came from the bakery, where the staff will say I've been for the last few hours."

"They'll _say_," Ron said when he managed to dislodge the cookie that had tried to go down sideways. "But that's not what actually happened." He didn't need her to confirm anything, Ron knew.

Rose grinned at him and moved towards the door. "I'm complaining to human resources about this unfair treatment," she called over her shoulder, louder than necessary. "It's unprofessional to dock my pay for no reason."

"You skipped half the day!" Ron shouted after her. Rose had a feeling only half of the frustration in his voice was an act for the few people who remained in the office.

She headed towards the file room, having seen Carol head out of the office with everyone else when she was on her way in.

The filing room was exactly what Rose would expect, a room full of filing cabinets and shelves of boxes. It was a little dusty and a lot boring. Rose was definitely starting to regret agreeing to help her father find out what was happening to the files. Her talents were being squandered on the most boring detective work possible. The things she did for family.

Finding a corner, Rose made herself comfortable leaning against a filing cabinet. After casting a charm over herself to keep anyone from noticing her, Rose drifted to sleep.

She woke up every time someone came into the room and kept a close eye on everything that happened. While she learned a few interesting things, there was nothing that conclusively proved what had been happening to files.

"Where have you been all day?" Albus asked when she stopped at his desk after emerging from the file room.

"I was taking a nap with all those dusty files."

"Your life is so difficult," Albus grumbled.

With almost everyone having already left, Rose was free to speak to Albus without fear of being overheard.

She wandered over to the desk she knew to have a stash of peanuts in one of the drawers and helped herself to a handful. Albus gave her a disapproving stare, but had given up on scolding her for invading their co-worker's privacy and stealing from them.

"It's not like I'm here to do actual work." She looked at the paperwork on his desk. It had multiplied since she'd last helped him work his way through the pile. For obvious reasons, Rose had never followed in her dad's footsteps and becoming an Auror. Her short time spent in Auror offices was serving to reassure her that she'd definitely made the right decision.

Albus stared at her for a while. "You weren't... crying in the file room because Scorpius is cheating on you, were you?"

"Do you not know me at all?" she demanded. "If I actually thought Scorpius was cheating on me, I wouldn't cry, I'd _destroy _him."

"If you were ever without Scorpius, I think you'd fall into a downward spiral that would end in Azkaban."

"Don't make me angry, Albus." She was already not in the best mood, and she'd hate to have to answer to his parents if she made him disappear.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A/N: Hello readers! We're halfway through, only 7 more chapters to go. **

**As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

Rose was still slightly annoyed with Albus' insistence that Scorpius was cheating on her when she opened the door to her house. She found her mother and Astoria in her sitting room, chatting while Hobitha served them tea. Her mum was trying to keep both Astoria and the elf from seeing how much she disapproved of Rose owning a House Elf. She wasn't really succeeding, but Rose was sure Astoria and Hobitha appreciated the effort.

"Striking while Scorpius is away and I'm without backup," Rose said with a raised eyebrow. "I'm assuming this meeting was Astoria's idea."

"Rose!" Hermione snapped, ready to scold her daughter for rudeness.

"Don't be hard on her, Hermione. She's right."

Rose kept a wary eye on the both of them as she took a seat on a comfy chair and grabbed a small tea cake. "I've told you I don't care what happens with my wedding. It's more for our families anyway. Wedding or not, I plan to spend the rest of my life with Scorpius."

With a wobbly smile, Hermione brushed away a tear. "Sometimes I worry that you're a little too morally flexible, but every time I'm reminded of your complete devotion to Scorpius I know you're going to be okay."

"Scorpius is just as much in love with her. It is sweet of them," Astoria said with a happy sigh. Both women ignored Rose's wrinkled nose at being called sweet. She wasn't sweet; she smiled like a shark and wasn't afraid to make a few people disappear to get what she wanted. She wasn't sweet!

"Stop scrunching up your nose, Rose. You'll get wrinkles."

Rose let her face relax and put on a fake smile. Maybe if she just went along with this horrible ambush, they'd tell her what they wanted and she'd be left in peace. There were still a few things she needed to do before bed and she was running out of time.

"If you know you have to surprise me because I'll do anything I can wiggle out of this ambush, you can't get upset with me for showing displeasure upon finding intruders in my home."

She was really going to have to start looking into her wards. They clearly needed to be adjusted to keep everyone out of the house. Rose was willing to bet that part of her mum's motivation in surprising her was checking that there was no rock star in the basement. It was a good thing she was rid of him and Hobitha had cleaned out all of the evidence of his visit.

Reaching into a bag at her feet, Astoria withdrew a very large binder that was filled with what looked like fabric samples and pictures of flower arrangements. "We just had a few things we wanted your input on. It'll only take a little while. We thought you might want some company all alone in this house."

With a frown, Rose met the eyes of both women and then groaned. "You two have seen the picture."

"We understand that you might be feeling some doubts right now and wanted to be here to reassure you," Astoria said quickly.

"I'm mostly just feeling annoyed that everyone seems to think I'm going to fall into a pit of despair because I think Scorpius is cheating on me. The picture was perfectly innocent, and I know he has a good reason. I trust him." She grabbed the book and randomly flipped it open to a page. "This can be the colour scheme if you insist on my input. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to eat a quick dinner and then I have places to be."

* * *

While Rose had been without doubts about Scorpius and his fidelity before the intervention of their mothers, she couldn't help wonder if Astoria knew something that she didn't. The possibility that there was something more to the "business trip" that Draco suddenly needed his son for had crossed her mind, and that possibility was looking more and more likely with every new thing she learned.

She was cursing her mother and Astoria as she clattered down the street in the same low heels she'd worn to work that day. The two of them had distracted her enough that she'd forgotten to change out her uncomfortable shoes for something easier on her poor toes.

"Torture devices," she muttered as she climbed the few stairs leading up to a moderate sized townhouse.

The woman who answered the door was petite with large eyes partially hidden behind thick plastic glasses, and she jumped at the slightest sound. Her twitchy nose made Rose think of her as a very large bunny rabbit. When it came to organization though, Patricia was the best.

"You're here to hire me, Rose Weasley?" Patricia asked, twitching her nose a few times.

"Yes. If you're not busy now, I'd like to get this done as quickly as possible."

"The usual cost?"

Having prepared for his, Rose handed the woman a small bag of coins. Patricia was one of the best in the world at what she did, but she didn't charge all that much for her services.

Rose had no trouble getting them into the Ministry. There were only a few Aurors manning the office for the night and they had seen Rose around the office enough that they didn't question her presence there in the middle of the night.

The dust in the file room's air was just as thick as it had been before, and after breathing it for a good portion of the day she really wasn't looking forward to spending any more time in the small room.

"What exactly am I looking for?" Patricia asked, her nose once again twitching and her fingers joining it.

Rose handed her the list of missing files. "I think they're still in the room, just in the wrong places. Summoning files isn't possible in here, and apparently no one working at the Ministry is capable of doing things the hard way."

Summoning files wasn't possible in the file room for two reasons: one being that the paper slips used to contain the files had a tendency to fall off while flying through the air, scattering papers everywhere. The second reason summoning files was blocked in the filing room was for security purposes. Someone elsewhere in the Ministry could have summoned a confidential file from outside of the room and it would fly right into their hands – or at least the parts of it that hadn't fallen out of the paper sleeve and scattered.

Just the thought of misfiling made Patricia wince as her nose twitched in distress. "I'll fix that," she said.

Like a conductor, Patricia raised both arms and immediately every file in the room jumped into the air. Through spellwork, practice, and an unfortunate case of obsessive compulsive disorder, Patricia could organize anything in a very short time.

Under normal circumstances, Rose wouldn't have stayed in the room. The files were practically a whirlwind and paper cuts were a very real possibility in such a small space.

"Can you send anything with the mention of Scorpius Malfoy, the recent gambling den bust, and everyone suspected to be connected with said den towards me?"

The paper whirlwind froze in the air as Patricia turned to look at Rose. "I'll be able to put the files in their correct place once you're finished reading them?"

"Of course."

Files started zipping through the air once more, a few of them coming to land in front of Rose in a neat pile. She sat on the floor, well out of the way of the whirlwind, and started flipping through her stack of files. Most of it was uninteresting information about the man behind the gambling ring and her fiancé, things she already knew, but there was one big surprise. Rose frowned and used her wand to make duplicates of a few key pages. After folding them as small as possible, she tucked them in her pocket.

At her normal reading speed, Rose was finished the files on Scorpius just as Patricia directed the last file to its place. It was downright scary sometimes at the speed Patricia could read when she fell into her zone. Resting at the twitchy woman's feet was a stack of files.

"I found everything you were looking for. They were shoved in the wrong places."

Rose took the files, slipped into her father's office to leave them on his desk, and then she snuck Patricia out of the office. Once again, no one commented on their presence. There really wasn't much sneaking involved at all. It was almost disappointing.

* * *

Rose's first stop early the next morning was a little shop in Wales known for some of the best wards in the world. She made an appointment with them to come to the house the very next day (at a considerable cost for the rush) and make some modifications to the simple wards on her house. With all the trouble Rose had a habit of attracting, it really was a good idea to have the best wards possible. One never knew when someone could get it into their heads that going after Rose at her home would be fitting revenge.

Her second errand of the morning was something far less exciting. Rose spent a minute standing outside the shop, looking at the bows tied with wide, silky ribbon and delicate little chairs grouped around a table bearing a cloth to match the bows. The monstrosity of wedding frills and other pointless decorations was on display in the shop window. She really didn't want to go in there.

She reminded herself that it was the lesser of two evils and forced her feet to move.

There was a woman just inside the door who nearly pounced on Rose when she entered.

"Welcome!"

It took great self control to prevent herself from rearing back away from the woman. Rose forced a smile on her face, needing this alarmingly cheery woman on her side.

"I need a wedding planner," Rose said.

She wouldn't have thought it possible, but the woman's smile grew. It was a wonder her face didn't break. "You've come to the right place! I'm Sybil. I make a point to get to know my clients on a personal level so I'll be able to plan their dream wedding."

Oh no, Sybil was getting all misty eyed. It was only a matter of time before she started waxing poetic about making every girl feel like a princess. Rose didn't want to be a princess; they inherited their power and worked at the whims of her people. The only whims Rose was interested in besides her own were Scorpius'. The general population could revolt for all she cared.

"I don't want to be a princess," Rose said. With Sybil's type, it was important that she laid down the law early on. Clearly the woman had a bent towards whimsy that Rose didn't want invading her wedding.

Sybil wilted where she stood but then immediately perked up once more. "That's okay. We can do something more low-key, and of course you'll be there every step of the way, so if there's something that's not working for you, it can always be changed."

"That's the thing, actually. I don't want to be involved at all."

Once again, Sybil wilted, this time more severely. "You don't want to get married?"

"No, I just want nothing to do with the planning stages. If it were up to me I'd elope, but that's just not done in my family or his."

Sybil's eyes widened as she took another look at her. "You're Rose Weasley," she said with awe.

"I am, and if you know anything about my family, you know this is going to be a very large wedding. You'll have my mother, Astoria Malfoy, and a friend of mine to help you with the planning, but I don't want to be involved. Can you do it?"

"You... don't want to be involved in your wedding beyond walking down the aisle?" To Sybil, this concept seemed to be something that was completely unheard of.

"Exactly. As I said, you'll have people who know me to assist you, but I'll be happy with pretty much anything. The budget will probably be considerable since Astoria wants nothing but the best for her son and we have the money to back it."

Sybil was misty eyed again. If she started leaking Rose was gone. It was bad enough that her friends and family occasionally did it in her presence, she wasn't going to put up with it in strangers.

"You mean... you want me to plan a wedding with a huge budget and no bridezilla to complicate everything?"

Her answer was delayed, not because she was unsure, but because she was worried that Sybil would start crying. "Yes," Rose finally said.

Instead of crying Sybil threw herself at Rose. "I'd love to plan your wedding. I have so many ideas!" She caught sight of Rose's face. "None of which I'll be sharing with you, but you'll see them on your big day."

"I'm glad we understand each other. You're hired." Rose extracted herself from Sybil's grip. "Provided you tone down this hugging thing, of course."

Sybil laughed. "Since I won't be seeing you, I won't have to bother!"

Excellent. They understood each other.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**A/N: Hello readers! **

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! **

**To Summerful21: I pictured Patricia as an organization guru, but for entire libraries at once. It wouldn't really be hard to be the best in the world since it's such a small niche... Thanks for the review!**

**~Frosty**

Wedding planner on board, Rose only needed to speak to one more person before she could be free of planning her wedding forever.

Hyacinth's wards let Rose inside the flat with no problem. Her friend certainly wasn't going to be pleased when she found out that Rose's wards wouldn't allow her to do the same thing. If she was nice, maybe Rose would refer her friend to the people who were going to work on her wards.

Rose pulled up short when she came face to face with a man standing in Hy's flat. He was wearing boxers but nothing else.

"Hy, there's a half naked male in your kitchen," she yelled with her eyes on the man. It was more than likely that he was one of her friend's conquests, but it was always best to be careful.

"Rose, meet Nate," Hy yelled from the bedroom.

"Ned, actually," he said, offering her a hand.

Rose looked him up and down. He was a little stocky for Hy's usual taste, but her friend considered herself something of a connoisseur and liked to branch out from time to time. Looks aside, he seemed genuinely nice and a little chagrined about the situation. He was a definite improvement on addict rock stars.

"Hy! Am I ever going to see this man again?"

Ned took his hand back, looking offended.

"No, send him away."

Walking to the bedroom and grabbing his missing clothing, Rose thrust them at him. "You can't pretend that Hy wasn't perfectly upfront with you when she brought you home with her. Now if you don't mind, I have something to discuss with my friend."

The entire flat shook with the force he used to slam the door on his way out.

"You could have gone easy on him," Hy said when she came out of the bedroom. She looked a tad rumpled, but she was fully dressed and her tousled appearance was almost artful instead of untidy.

"You know how I hate exchanging pleasantries with people who are no use to me. It's a waste of breath."

Hy went to the coffeemaker and set to making them both a mug of coffee. "I read the story in the paper this morning on our rock star. You sent him to Thailand and left him thinking that he's been off the grid for a while because he overindulged on drugs and alcohol?"

"It works."

"Yeah, but you had the opportunity to give me the scoop on some interesting gossip and you went with the most boring story possible. It's not even something new; he's disappeared for days before and turned up countries away from where he was last seen."

"That's the point, Hy. He's done this before. The story is predictable, which makes it the most believable."

"You're no fun," she said with a sigh.

"Maybe not, but I've cleaned up your mess. Now you owe me."

Hy was suddenly wary, concerned of what Rose would ask from her. "What do you need?"

"I've hired a wedding planner, but she needs some assistance from someone who knows me. I want you to work with my mother and Astoria to plan my wedding, make sure they don't do something ridiculous like make Scorpius and I write our own vows."

Like Sybil, Hy launched herself at Rose and squeezed her tight in a hug.

Why was it that everyone but Rose seemed to be excited about the planning of a wedding? Rose filed it away as excitement to be spending money that wasn't their own and pried herself away from her friend. She was somewhat consoled by the fact that she didn't have to tell anyone else her wedding news and that she was done with the random hugs.

"Just keep the frills to a minimum."

* * *

It was approaching the end of the workday when Rose finally made it to the Auror offices. She hadn't bothered with borrowing something professional from Hy, instead wearing her everyday clothes. They wouldn't impress anyone, but they were comfortable.

"You disappeared yesterday for several hours after I question you about that rock star and then the next day, he appears exactly where and how you said he would," Ron said before she was even seated. "Should I be worried?"

Rose waved a dismissive hand. "I admit responsibility for nothing, and no one will ever be able to connect his disappearance with me."

"Let's move on then."

He only looked vaguely concerned about her involvement in the Terrible Tortoises mess. It was more self preservation than anything; if Ron worried about every one of his daughter's schemes, he'd have an ulcer and still wouldn't ever know what was really going on with her. As long as no one died and nothing terribly illegal came to light, he tried to look the other way. For him, it was better to deal with the entirety of his daughter's true personality than only see a side of it that she'd fabricated for him.

"How about we talk about the fact that you're seven hours late for work?"

"I thought it wouldn't matter since I don't actually work here and I found those files like you wanted me to."

Ron patted the stack of files that were still on his desk. "How'd you find them? Carol was sure we had a security breach and someone was stealing confidential information."

"I spent yesterday hidden inside the file room. Your Carol, the woman who until now hasn't lost a file, is having sex with one of your _married _Aurors in the filing room. I watched her randomly shove files in cabinets so that she'd be able to catch up with the filing she missed while meeting her lover."

"You do have a security problem, though," she continued. "First of all, I brought a strange woman through the office in the middle of the night and no one bothered asking me a single question. You need to make sure to enforce the visitor pass rule in the office."

Ron looked surprised. "You snuck into the office in the middle of the night?"

"I thought I might have a little more trouble sneaking her in if I tried it in the middle of the day."

Through long years of dealing with his daughter, Ron knew better than to try and talk to her about her rule breaking after the fact, or before for that matter. He'd asked for her assistance knowing Rose would do what she needed to in order to solve his problem.

"Thanks for this," he said, patting the stack of files. "This could have caused me a lot of trouble down the line."

"I'll be billing you for the organizer I brought in to fix the mess that was your filing room," she said, dismissing his thanks. "You're going to continue having problems with missing files if you don't do something about Carol. I recommend terminating her immediately."

"Noted."

Rose laced her fingers as she leaned forwards slightly in her chair. "While the filing room was being organized, I asked her to separate out any files with Scorpius' name on them and found something interesting."

While he tried to look angry with her, Ron mostly just looked like he had a stomach-ache. His freckles stood out more as his skin paled. "What did you find?"

"You're not a very good actor, Daddy. I think you know exactly what I found, and I'm not very happy about it." She leaned forward to put her hands against the edge of his desk as she stood. "If you try and keep me from looking in to something by giving me some small job around the office again, I'm going to make sure you'll have some very large problems on your hands."

"You're my daughter, you don't get to threaten me," Ron said angrily. He drew himself up a little and tried to stare her down but was too guilty to look her in the eye properly.

"You're right, I'm your daughter. That means you should put me before your job, not the other way around."

* * *

Rose could count on one hand the number of times she had fought, truly fought with Scorpius. Normally, when someone angered her, she'd find out their weaknesses and then prod at them until the person who had incurred her wrath was so completely sorry that they would never cross her again.

Scorpius though, he was more difficult. She knew all of his weaknesses without even poking around. From an objective standpoint, _she _was his greatest weakness.

A slightly evil grin blossomed on her face as a wonderfully horrible idea occurred to her. Rose rushed to the fireplace.

The flat she emerged into was dark and smelled of freshly extinguished candles. Rose wrinkled her nose; she'd been hoping that Hy would be alone. Clearly it had been a naive hope.

Perhaps Rose was wrong and Hy had talked Ned into forgiving her.

"Hy, are you here?"

A shuffling sound came from the direction of the bedroom before Hy emerged wrapped in a housecoat.

"Are you alone?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, my guest just left."

Telling Hy that maybe if she let a man stick around just once, she might actually like him was tempting, but Rose had tried it on more than one occasion. For some reason, Hy was completely terrified of commitment. If Rose had to hazard a guess, she'd say that her friend had daddy issues, but as far as Rose could tell, Hy's father was a perfectly adequate parent.

She shook off her musings. Hy didn't want to change and didn't want to discuss it.

"Good, I have something for you to print."

Hy didn't look very happy about it, but she obediently went to fetch a quill and notepad. "Is it the truth that you're having me print?"

"No."

"Am I going to lose my job for printing false information?"

"You can retract it in a few days. Besides, you're a gossip columnist. It's not like people expect you to print the truth all the time."

Huffing at the insult, Hy poised her pen over the pad. "Fine, give me the details."

"I'm going to be arrested for extortion."

* * *

Rose was on her way to the bank the next morning when she saw Henrietta. Unfortunately, the other woman saw Rose too.

"Rose, I need to talk to you."

Henrietta rushed over and put herself right in Rose's path. There was no way to get into the bank without going around Henrietta and the woman looked like she was ready to tackle Rose to the ground to keep her still long enough to have the little talk she so wanted.

"What is it?" Rose asked. Her voice was softer than she'd wanted, but it was difficult to be outright cruel to someone who looked as vulnerable as Henrietta.

Henrietta's wide eyes took inventory of the many people walking by them on the street, of the people waiting to get in the bank and the annoyed pedestrians who glared as they had to press themselves against a wall in order to get into the bank around them.

"Not here," she said. "We need to go somewhere more private."

A secret meeting. Rose was suddenly a little more interested in what her future sister in law wanted to tell her.

Being the one with more clandestine meeting experience, Rose led the way down the street a ways and then around a corner. They stopped on a deserted side street.

"Something's wrong with Hugo," Henrietta said as soon as they stopped moving.

"Haven't you seen the papers? Everyone has seen him bare arsed naked. Something would be wrong with me too if I knew everyone I talked to had seen my backside."

"That's not what I meant. There's something besides the obvious on his mind. I'm worried something he's not telling me happened that night and he's got himself in trouble."

Rose put up a hand to stop Henrietta. "You're right that it's more than the obvious that's wrong with Hugo, but he's not in danger, just really stupid when he drinks. Don't worry; I'm working on the problem."

For some reason, Henrietta didn't seem comforted. Rose had never actively gone after Henrietta, so there was no reason for a grudge. Of course, the woman had seen Rose at work over the years, so maybe it was just fear she was feeling.

"Just don't get him too involved in a scheme. I'd like him in one piece when I marry him."

"You have nothing to worry about. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to the bank."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**A/N: Hello readers! I know I haven't answered reviews yet, but I only had time this morning to either post a chapter or answer reviews. I thought you'd prefer the new chapter.**

**As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed. Special thanks to Dramionetruelove, who took the time to review every chapter.**

**~Frosty**

Rose woke up to someone knocking on the door. She padded down the stairs muttering about unwanted guests invading her peace and her desperate wish for stronger wards. The irony that the person who was interfering with her sleep turned out to be the ward technician there to redo the generic spells that kept her house safe didn't escape her. Fortunately, she as tired and irritated enough that she didn't have to acknowledge it.

Knowing what the paper said about her that morning, Rose thought it best that she be difficult to find for a while. She really didn't want anyone finding her and asking uncomfortable questions before the story had served its purpose.

She made sure to dress in clothes that were tighter and frillier than her norm. In addition to this, she stopped in front of the mirror and transfigured her hair into a shiny blonde bob. It looked terrible with her skin tone, but it made her look a lot less like herself. She barely recognised her own face, so it was unlikely that someone else would.

Rose was sitting in a booth in the back of one of the newer bars in Diagon Alley when she looked up to see that Quinn had just entered. Sipping a drink, she watched as he searched the room multiple times, not able to recognise her without her signature hair.

She took pity on him when he started to look uncomfortable. She wanted him to feel awkward, not leave entirely. With a finger raised, she gestured him over to her table.

"I thought for a minute I'd done something to annoy you and this was going to end in an ambush of some sort," Quinn said with a grin as he sat down on the opposite side of her booth.

Rose hopped up and slid into the booth beside him, trapping him between herself and the wall.

"And now you're uncomfortably close to me. This really is some sort of ambush, isn't it? You get a little too close and then Scorpius comes in and has an excuse to hex me." He tried to lean away from her, but it was as futile as trying to merge with the wall using only the power of his mind.

"I need to know something and you're going to tell me," she said. They were touching from knee to shoulder and Quinn was darting glances around the room like a cornered animal. If there was a chance it would free him, he'd probably attempt to gnaw off an arm.

"If this is about the extortion charges in the paper, I had nothing to do with it. I'll be a character witness for you if that's what it takes for you to let me live."

Rose didn't know why he was so afraid that she'd kill him. She'd never killed anyone and had no plans to start. If that made him more willing to do what she wanted though, Rose was willing to go with it and didn't bother correcting him.

"The man in charge of the gambling den that was recently raided, I need to know where he lives."

The Ministry files hadn't actually said much about the man. It seemed like he was still something of a mystery to them.

Quinn stopped staring around the room and looked down at her. Suddenly, he was a lot less fidgety. It was clear that he was more afraid of a real criminal than Rose, someone he'd known since he was eleven. Rose was going to have to work harder on her image.

"You and Scorpius could destroy me, but those people will literally tear me to pieces. I can't tell you that."

"There's a good chance they're never going to find out that you told me where he lives. In fact, the only way he could possibly know it was you would be if I told him, and that would never happen. If you don't tell me though, you'd incur my ire, something that's guaranteed to make you miserable."

Quinn tried to hold out a little longer. He managed to resist her most intimidating stare, even when she leaned even closer to him to magnify the effect. Clearly she'd spent so much time trying to intimidate him that he'd developed something of an immunity to her. Well, she would just have to try a different way to intimidate him.

Wrapping an arm around the back of his neck, she pulled him closer. Her intention had been to threaten him once they were nose to nose, but his eyes widened and he leaned his head as far away from her as it would go.

"Okay," he shouted. "I'll tell you what you want, just stop _that_."

She had the feeling that he'd thought she was going to kiss him. Strange. She was perfectly willing to let him think that if it worked. It was a much better solution than arranging for a weekly delivery of his favourite muffins charged to her. Less work.

Rose wrote down the address as he recited it.

"For the record," he said once she'd finally freed him from the booth. "I don't like you when you're blonde. It makes you mean."

She bared her teeth in a shark smile. "I've been fixing everyone's problems for long enough. Apparently people are starting to forget what I'm capable of."

For Merlin's sake, Henrietta had practically cried on Rose's shoulder. Clearly she was doing something wrong. Her name was supposed to be accompanied by curses, not used as comfort. She worked for her own benefit, not everyone else's.

She was on her way out of the bar when someone grabbed her arm Disapparated before she had a chance to get a good look at the person. She wasn't concerned though; there was only one person who could have hunted her down when she was wearing a disguise and intent on avoiding everyone.

She'd been expecting him.

Something went wrong with the spell. It felt like they hit something that flexed and then flung the both of them in a different direction. It _hurt_.

Rose landed flat on her face in the middle of a field somewhere, scratching herself in several places as she hit the ground. There was dirt in her teeth and she wasn't happy about it. She peeled herself from the suctioning power of the mud and used her wand to clean off the mud and grass suddenly covering her.

"They're working on our wards today," she told Scorpius, who had somehow managed to land upright and was completely free of mud.

He remained silent, watching her, waiting.

"Did you have a good trip?" She didn't even try to make her inquiry seem genuine.

Scorpius pulled a crumpled scrap of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it to show the article Hy had written about her in the newspaper. "I had to cut it short. I had a feeling that you'd found out something I probably should have explained to you."

"You didn't think I could actually be arrested for extortion?"

"I may have thought that for a moment, but then I received notification from Gringott's. Apparently in light of new information they've recently received, I've been suspended for two weeks until they can further investigate the claims."

"I thought the time off would give you plenty of time to explain what's been going on. You know how I hate being left out of a perfect chance to exercise my plotting skills."

Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "From the little I've heard about what you've been up to while I was gone, your plotting skills definitely don't need the extra work."

"It's interesting that you know so much about what I've been up to, yet I know very little about what's been happening with you."

He sighed and sat down on a low stone wall after a quick search around the area for somewhere clean to rest. "Aren't you going to sit?"

Rose crossed her arms. "I think I'd prefer to stand."

With his lips pressed together, Scorpius looked her over. He kept coming back to her blond hair though, so Rose returned it to her normal tumble of red curls. She wanted his entire attention on her while she spoke with him.

"The Ministry contacted my father not long after we graduated from Hogwarts. They knew that, while his business was legal, he still occasionally associated with people of interest to the Aurors."

As she started to see where this was going, Rose's eyebrows drew together. "The Aurors were doing to your dad the same thing that they did to us when we were in Hogwarts. They wanted someone on the inside to gather information for them." She studied Scorpius intently. "You've gone on more than one business trip with him. Were any of them actually because he wanted your assistance with the business or are you there as some kind of liaison with the younger criminals?"

"He's never needed my help with business."

Really, she had known that. It was just that Scorpius lied to her so rarely that she'd automatically accepted his story at face value. She was going to have to re-evaluate her trust in him.

"Don't get that look, Rose."

She ignored that comment. In fact, if her expression was making him feel bad for lying, then she was going to wear it more often. "What I want to know is why you didn't just tell me what you were doing. I wouldn't have had any problem with what you're doing. In fact, I could have helped."

"That's the problem. You would have wanted to help. You live for this stuff and it can sometimes be dangerous."

Rose had been watching Scorpius as he shifted, mostly so that he would see how upset she was, but she noticed the slightly crooked way he was sitting. Normally, that wouldn't peak her interest, but he was seated with one of his arms pressed tightly to his side. Something was off.

"Exactly how dangerous was this trip of yours?" She shifted on her feet while he watched her suspiciously.

"While Father met with the man who is the Ministry's main interest, I was to keep his daughter company while seeing if I could learn anything from her. Apparently she had a boyfriend who didn't appreciate me spending time alone with his girlfriend."

"Did this woman happen to have exotic looks and a fondness of sequins?"

She better have. Rose wasn't jealous, but she liked to think that her fiancé didn't spend all of his time away from her out with other women and then return to lie to her about it.

"I knew the Aurors were taking pictures," he said with a frown. "I'm assuming someone showed you one of these pictures that the undercover Aurors accompanying Father and I assured us weren't being taken?"

While he was distracted with trying to solve a puzzle in his head that Rose didn't even have all the pieces for, she lunged forward and pulled up his shirt. His pale skin was one huge bruise up his side. If he were a peach, Rose would have thrown him out because he would be more pulpy mass than actual fruit.

"Why hasn't this been healed?" she demanded.

"I was going to see a healer as soon as I got back here, but I decided to find out what was going on with my fiancé first. I was almost certain the paper was lying, especially since it was Hy who published the story, but I had to check."

She was the tiniest bit touched, but mostly annoyed with him for his double standards. He wasn't willing to let her in on what was happening with him because he didn't want her to get hurt, yet when he was actually injured, possibly bleeding internally, he put off getting medical attention and rushed home. Men. If she had done something similar, he would have thrown a fit.

Being bounced off of the wards probably hadn't helped with his injuries.

"Come on," she said as she tugged on him until he stood. "Don't think you're off the hook just because you're injured. I still haven't asked you the most important questions yet."

"And what would those be?"

"Nice try. You're getting that bruise looked at and _then _I'm asking you my questions. I'm not letting anything distract me from your answers."

Rose didn't bother knocking when they appeared in front of Hugo's apartment. He was her younger brother; what's his was theirs and all that. When he finally married and moved in with Henrietta, she'd consider knocking out of respect to her sister in law, but that was only going to be when she was in a giving mood.

With Scorpius beside her bruised and leaning a good portion of his weight on her, she was not in a giving mood.

"Rose?" Hugo said with a yelp as he scrambled to pull his shirt back on. Henrietta was there as well, her cheeks bright red as she quickly tried to straighten her clothing.

"Trying a different tactic to find out what's been bothering him?" Rose asked Henrietta. Blushing even darker, the Muggleborn rushed from the room.

"Was that really necessary?" Hugo demanded.

Rose shrugged remorselessly. "Maybe it'll stop her from crying all over me while she fishes for information about you. She'll be family when you marry her, but I still don't trust her entirely, especially when she tries to pry information from me." Hugo, still frowning, tried to interject something, but Rose put a foot behind Scorpius' ankle and nudged him with her hip, throwing him off balance. He fell on his good side right beside Hugo. "You owe me for looking into remedying what happened on your night of stupidity. Make yourself decent and fix Scorpius, Mr. Healer Trainee."

She could have brought Scorpius to the hospital and had him healed properly, but there would have been a wait involved. Paperwork as well, and being around sick people. Rose hated being surrounded by the ill almost as much as she hated actually being sick.

"What's her problem?" Hugo mumbled to Scorpius under his breath as the blond removed his shirt to show the extent of his injuries."

"She's decided that she's too nice and that she needs to work on remedying that."

Hugo paled. "Merlin, she's going to destroy us all."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**A/N: Hello readers! I've just realized that in the beginning of this story, I was posting Monday/Wednesday/Saturday but then somewhere along the line I got confused and started posting Wednesday/Sunday. Gah. I'll try and get back to the original schedule. Sorry about that.**

**As always, thanks to all of the wonderful people who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

"So did you two hear that Lily's husband is back?" Hugo asked as he healed Scorpius. He was clearly uncomfortable with the silence between his sister and her fiancé.

Rose's eyes didn't move from the steadily shrinking bruise on Scorpius' side. "Of course he's coming back. I'm susceptible to hostage situations just like anyone else."

"You're not going soft," Scorpius said quietly.

"I was well on my way to doormat status."

The blond's eye roll was cut off with a wince when Hugo prodded a particularly tender area. "No one who's met you would ever for a second think that you're anything close to a doormat. You stopped manipulating people entirely for your own gains and started helping those who came to you for it. That's _not _going soft, that's maturing."

"Well I'm not maturing anymore. I'm regressing. People seem to think that I'm a bleeding heart now." She raised her voice. "They think crying all over me will get information out of me."

Abashed, Henrietta slunk out from her eavesdropping position just inside the door to Hugo's bedroom. "I just wanted to know what you knew about Hugo's night out."

"Don't let her drag you into this, Henrietta," Scorpius said. "Her issue is with me, she's just directing her anger towards everyone else at the moment."

It was then that Hugo finished the healing – or at least Scorpius deemed himself sufficiently healed to make an escape. He muttered a thanks to Hugo, grabbed a half-resisting Rose by the elbow, and got the both of them out of there.

"What's it going to take for you to stop this?" Scorpius asked.

He knew that while Rose was quick to start plotting vengeance when angered, when it came to him, she was also quick to let things go if Scorpius could just find the right thing to offer her. She made enemies of almost everyone and knew it was in her best interests to keep Scorpius on her side. It helped that, at her very core, it didn't really matter what he had done, she wanted to forgive him.

Somehow, Scorpius wasn't really comforted by this fact when faced with her irritation and an upcoming interrogation.

Their wards were finished and working properly. They'd been able to get through them without a problem.

Rose crossed her arms and lowered herself onto the sofa in their sitting room. She was tempted to sulk but needed to keep her eyes on him if she was going to take note of his every reaction. It went against everything she knew to treat him just like everyone else, but she knew it was necessary for her piece of mind.

"First you're going to need to answer the rest of my questions, and then I'll start thinking of what will make this okay."

Sitting in one of the chairs across from her because he knew very well trying to sit beside her was just going to get him hexed, Scorpius nodded his head for her to start.

"You're smart," she started, watching him as he stared towards her, expressionless in that way he got when he was braced for the worst. "You wouldn't get yourself involved in something like this out of the kindness of your heart, not when it risked yours and your father's life. Not when taking the job would risk your relationship with me."

At that, she finally got a reaction out of him. It was the tiniest of movements, but it was definitely a wince. He wasn't really showing it, but he was upset that he had excluded and upset her.

Good.

What wasn't good was the defiant light in his eyes that told her he'd risk their relationship all over again if he genuinely thought her life would be in danger by including her. In every other aspect of his life, Scorpius had no problem letting Rose get her devious mind in there to poke around. He didn't usually involve himself in manipulation unless provoked, but he didn't have a problem with Rose interfering in his life.

"Your question?" he prompted. It was best to ask exactly what she wanted; an angry Rose was liable to use any extra information to her advantage and Scorpius didn't want her getting the wrong idea.

"Your father is involved with the Aurors because his business wasn't as legal as he wanted everyone to think."

"Something you don't seem surprised about," he interrupted.

She shrugged. "I have a file on his dealings. He even asked for my input from time to time. I assumed you knew or I would have shared it with you."

"Will you share it with me now?"

"Of course, but not until you've answered my questions. Are you going to let me now or are you going to keep interrupting?"

He waved for her to continue.

"You've explained why your father was involved, not why you found it necessary to join him."

"That's not a question."

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. He was a slippery bugger; normally, that was part of why she loved him. In this case in particular though, he was annoying her. He knew it too. Scorpius was worried about what her reaction would be when she found out the whole story, but he was also enjoying the interrogation.

"Answer it anyway."

"The daughter, the woman I was meeting, she knew who I was and was interested in meeting me." His cheeks grew pink, telling Rose much more than his words did.

"Should I be worried about what happened between you and her?"

He shook his head empathetically, looking ruffled for the first time during her interrogation. "No, she didn't touch me – she tried, but she didn't touch me."

While Rose hadn't really been worried, it was still a relief to hear him say those words. She didn't let her relief stall her interrogation. "Which Auror was it who approached you?"

She doubted Draco had dragged his son into this mess of his own free will, so she had to assume that the Aurors were the ones to involve Scorpius. Someone, at some point, probably years ago when Scorpius' business trips with his father started, had asked him, a fresh Hogwarts graduate, to involve himself in potentially life-threatening situations to atone for a mistake his father had made.

"Are you sure you want to ask me that question?"

That question was as much of an answer as the actual words would have been, but again, Rose needed Scorpius to actually say it. She didn't want to make any assumptions that would get her in trouble later. That was just careless, and it would be a waste of effort if she ruined the wrong person.

"I'm sure."

He watched her to make sure that she really wanted the answer, and then sighed. "It was your father who approached us. He was the one working on the case."

That was what she'd been worried he'd say.

"My Dad was involved in blackmail?" she asked in disbelief, going boneless and letting her chair hold her up. Maybe she had more of her dad in her than she'd ever given him credit for.

She had to turn the idea around in her head a few times, just to let it really seep into her mind. It was uncomfortable to have to completely adjust her view of someone she'd known her entire life, but she was good at adapting her view of people. She wouldn't be able to manipulate people the way she did if she had rigid ideas about them that just couldn't be changed.

"My Dad blackmailed yours into fighting crime alongside the Aurors and it could have very well gotten both you and your father killed." She pursed her lips as she thought this over. "The wedding's certainly going to be interesting."

Scorpius straightened the tiniest bit in his seat. He hid it, but he certainly didn't like being at odds with her. "You're still marrying me?"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course we're still getting married." She didn't soften at his smile. "I have one more question for you though. Whose idea was it to have me do a harmless job around the Auror office to keep me out of the way?"

This time his face betrayed nothing; he was very carefully expressionless. It told her everything she needed to know.

While her dad was more in touch with his Slytherin side than she'd thought, he still insisted on believing the best in her. It wouldn't have occurred to him that she'd have less than legal sources supplying her with information on what was going on with the Auror office. When motivated, nothing would have stopped her from finding out what Scorpius was doing if she thought there was anything of interest going on right behind her back.

Scorpius was the one who'd known that she needed something to keep her busy if she was to stay out of the trouble. He was also the one who'd had to watch her walk right into more trouble than they were able to handle back when they were in school. He'd made it clear that he wasn't willing to repeat the experience.

"Never mind," she said before he could answer. "I already know."

She stood, feeling emptier than she should. She should be furious with her father and her fiancé for deliberately manipulating her, but that would be kind of hypocritical of her.

"Rose?" Scorpius asked, worried that she hadn't hissed any threats at him in that way she did when truly angered.

"Remember when you found out that I'd arranged to have someone the Aurors thought to be a murderer smuggled out of the country?" she asked.

"Yes. You were just asking for trouble getting involved with something like that."

"He was innocent and I owed him a favour. That's not the point. When you caught me, you were furious that I'd get myself involved in something like that. And when I asked you what would help you get over your anger, you made me promise not to have your Aunt Daphne's hair stylist shave all of her hair off despite how easy it would have been and how much she deserved it for the thinly veiled insults on my blood and my hair."

"You're saying that some little favour is going to convince you to forgive me?"

"No. The favour would definitely have to be a large one, and it'll only put me on the path to forgiveness." She grinned at him suddenly, already thinking up things she could ask him to do. It actually helped her quite a bit with everything she was feeling towards her crafty fiancé. She had a feeling that, in the distant future, she'd be proud of him for thinking up a scheme that took her so long to unravel completely.

"Why do I feel like I've just agreed to do something exceedingly unpleasant?"

Her grin widened. "Because you have."

* * *

Rose wrinkled her nose at all the flour in the air, wondering if there was a bakery equivalent of the miner's black lung. If she went home from this little outing with white lung, it would completely defeat the point of her therapeutic trip.

She'd left Scorpius at home, needing some time away from him. Scorpius, after a stressful trip and then an even more stressful return home, was more than happy to quietly take a nap after extracting a promise from her that she wasn't going to do anything too dangerous or hasty while he was asleep.

"Can I help you?" asked a round man with pink cheeks. His ring of wiry bronze hair around his bald head looked almost like a crown, a crown covered in flour. If anyone had white lung, it would be him. Despite the fact that she was trespassing in his kitchen, he didn't seem hostile, only curious.

Rose looked around the large bakery at the few workers in the hot kitchen who kept shooting her curious looks. "Are you the owner of this establishment?"

"That I am. Was there something you needed from me?"

She had to fight to keep her shark's smile form taking over her mouth. It tended to scare people and she needed this man on her side. "I have a favour to ask of you, if I could just have a moment of your time. Is there somewhere I could speak with you alone?"

"My office," he said, looking confused but not willing to turn her away without hearing what she had to say.

Ten minutes later, when Rose and the bakery owner emerged from his office, she didn't bother concealing her toothy smile. She felt a little better already.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**A/N: Hello readers! Apparently I'm okay following a schedule as long as I don't tell you guys about it. So here's another chapter. We're approaching the end! This story's only 15 chapters. **

**As always, thanks to everyone who took the time to review.**

**~Frosty**

Scorpius blinked open his eyes to find Rose perched on the edge of their bed, watching him. It was her hand brushing against his hair that had woken him.

"You have flour in your hair," he croaked. "Are you done with your revenge fieldtrip?"

Rose grinned at him, showing all of her teeth, and unlike the nice people at the bakery, Scorpius wasn't unnerved in the least. He reached up at fluffed her curls a little, dislodging the bit of flower that was caught between the strands.

Even though she wasn't exactly pleased with him at the moment, Rose had missed him fiercely while he'd been gone. She'd appreciated having the bed to herself for all of ten minutes before she realized how quiet her house was at night without him breathing beside her. She leaned into the hand he had against her cheek and then allowed him to pull her down beside him.

"Don't think this means you're out of hot water," she said between kisses.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Later, wrapped around each other and contentedly drowsy from exertion and endorphins, Rose poked at Scorpius' still slightly bruised side. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No." He too looked down at the greenish yellow splotch on his skin. "Hugo healed all but the deepest bruises, and what little remains doesn't hurt at all."

Rose extracted herself from his grasp and patted an unmarked part of his chest. "You get some rest. I have a few more things to do before I can join you."

His expression made it clear that he wasn't pleased that she was leaving, but he knew better than to try and stop her.

"Try not to get yourself the kind of trouble you need help escaping while I'm asleep," he called after her. Rose chose to ignore him. Since when did she need Scorpius to get her out of a situation?

She deliberately ignored the examples her mind provided and left the room with as much dignity as possible while clad only in a ratty bathrobe.

* * *

Very rarely did Rose come across a situation that plotting and manipulation couldn't solve to her satisfaction. Through experience, she had learned that in these rare instances, sometimes the truth told to the right person could do more than any amount of plotting could.

Rose let herself into her childhood home, unconsciously taking a deep breath of the smell of old books and cinnamon apples that she'd unconsciously associated with home for most of her life. She immediately noticed that it was completely silent inside, something that wasn't entirely unusual considering her mother liked to spend most of her time reading, but it was still worth noting. Her father had trouble keeping noise down to a reasonable level, talking a little too loud, tripping, dropping things, and swearing when he stubbed his toes, usually on the piles of books her mum left around the house.

Maybe the silence meant nothing, but there was a chance that her father suspected she knew what he had done, and was hiding. He knew enough about her true personality by now to understand that he should be wary of her if she knew he'd so blatantly manipulated her.

Rose continued into the house, following the soft whisper of parchment on parchment to the sitting room, where her mother was leafing absently through a very large book.

"I was wondering if you were going to pay us a visit," Hermione said, thumping the book closed and setting it on an end table so that her daughter had her full attention.

Perfect. Rose couldn't have hoped for a more receptive mood.

"Do you know what Dad did?"

Hermione shook her head, not pleased to be left out of the loop. "All I know is that Hugo stopped in complaining that you're on the warpath about something. Your father went pale and then went to hide in his office. That was hours ago and I haven't heard a word from him since."

There was a good chance he'd used the fireplace in his office to go visit her Uncle Harry. Of course, Hermione didn't have to voice this. It was what Ron always did when he was in trouble and didn't quite want to face it yet. Rose was pretty sure it was a defense mechanism developed during childhood for when he'd done something wrong and his prone to scolding mother came looking for him.

"Are you going to tell me what kind of trouble he's caused?" Hermione asked impatiently.

Rose didn't take her attitude personally; she knew her mum hated it when everyone else in the room knew something she didn't.

"Dad blackmailed my fiancé and his father into meeting with dangerous criminals overseas. I've just seen Scorpius and he was black and blue all up his side. I had to take him to Hugo to make sure he didn't have any internal bleeding or some other potentially deadly ailment."

"He did _what_?"

By the time Rose left her parents' house, her mum was ready to string up her dad by the ankles. He'd certainly be getting an earful when her mum managed to track him down.

* * *

Rose woke Scorpius up by throwing a pile of clothes on top of him. He flailed a little and then blinked at her, squinting in the bright morning sunlight.

"Did you even sleep last night?" he asked blearily.

Zipping around the room as she attempted to assemble an outfit without the assistance of Hy, Rose felt like she'd drank a few too many cups of coffee. It seemed that doing nothing but kindnesses for those around her had been weighing on her more than she'd thought. Now that she was resolved to start thinking more of herself, it like that weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"I slept for a few hours," she said. "But I thought up a plan to sort out this whole situation and teach my dad a lesson at the same time. I'd go as far as saying it's elegant."

Wary now, Scorpius sat up, absently sorting through the pile of clothes Rose had dropped on him while he watched her. "Is this going to be the type of elegant situation that I'm going to hate?"

"Definitely." She finally decided on an outfit and set it aside for later before turning to face Scorpius again. "This is the favour I want. Do this with me without complaint and I'll let go of you lying to me and helping my father manipulate me."

He stared at her for a moment, gleaning as much information as he could from her expression. Rose wasn't sure what he learned since most people seem to struggle with reading her, but it was apparently enough to bring a frown to his lips.

"Why do I have a feeling that you're pretending to be angrier about this than you actually are?"

"Probably because you're just as devious as me when you want to be and you know that pretending to be more hurt and angry than I am would get your compliance with a grand scheme that you would have otherwise refused."

Scorpius shook his head as he dragged himself from bed. "Obviously I've been living with you for too long."

Failing to hide her smile, Rose leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. She would have gone for a proper kiss, but Scorpius had horrible morning breath, and she still hadn't quite forgiven him for lying.

The previous night had been about her missing him, now she was focused on her goals.

Scorpius understood this and went about his morning business while Rose continued to flit around their room preparing everything for the main event.

When he was finished showering and brushing his teeth, he went in search of her, finding her on the sofa with a pile of parchment in front of her. She may have grown since their Hogwarts days, but she was still a visual person. She liked having things written out in front of her. It helped her plan.

He sat down beside her, his weight tilting her into his side as he compressed the sofa cushion. "Are you going to fill me in on what's happening, or am I just going in completely blind?"

Rose sketched out a rough outline of what she has planned. Obviously there was a degree of improvisation involved, and a few things she wasn't going to tell Scorpius until it was too late for him to refuse. He might object to the danger involved.

"You're not telling me everything," Scorpius said as soon as she finished speaking.

She smiled. "Nope, but that's all you're going to get out of me."

After staring at her for a while, hoping that she would break, Scorpius gave up with a sigh. "I know what this is really about."

"Enlighten me."

"There are simpler ways to get what you want, but you've chosen this one because it proves to you and everyone else that you're a force to be reckoned with." Rose was on the verge of objecting, but Scorpius ignored it. "This crisis of identity is ridiculous; you're not a soft person. So Lily was able to convince you that her husband needed to return home. We both know you didn't do it because of the hostage situation, you did it because she was so upset about it and it was taking too long for a snake to eat him."

Rose frowned at him. "You're wrong."

His expression told her what he thought more quickly than he could have with words. "No I'm not," he said with great confidence. "This isn't as difficult to solve as you seem to think. Figure out what it's going to take for you to feel like yourself again and then do it. I really don't think what you've got planned is going to make you feel any better. Plus it may get the both of us killed."

She turned over the words in her head even as she scowled at him for saying exactly what she didn't want to hear. Revisiting her handling of Lily's husband was something Rose would consider doing once she was done with the much more urgent plan. She still had to get ready for the party and was running out of time quickly.

"You're wrong; this is definitely going to make me feel better. There isn't anything in the world that's more therapeutic to the soul than a nice, intricate scheme."

"There are some who would view statements like that as an indication of deeper problems."

Rose glared at him. "And those people quickly find out how unpleasant schemes can be when they're on the losing side. Remember the counsellor Mum sent me to right after the Auror incident at Hogwarts?"

"Of course I remember. He told you to find a healthier outlet for your anger and you had his business shut down, had him condemned as a fraud, and then his wife found out about his mistress from an anonymous source."

"And the next mental health professional Mum sent me to declared me perfectly stable."

"He'd heard what happened to the last one who suggested you stop scheming."

"Are you complaining about my scheming, Scorpius?"

"Never. Unlike them, I understand it's part of who you are. All I'm saying is that maybe this one time you should talk to your father before you punish him with this scheme. I'm not pleased with him either for what he did," he said quickly when he saw her reflection. "I only said anything because I think it might be better for _you_."

Rose tilted her head to the side as she sifted through her feelings. She was upset about what her father had done, but she was mostly just annoyed. Had there been any more genuine hurt she would have considered speaking to her father first.

She knew that when Scorpius bothered to say so much, he usually had a really good point, and when he voiced his opinion, she almost always listened to him. While she appreciated some of the things he'd said and knew that she'd probably needed to hear them, it wasn't enough to change her plans.

"I don't need to talk about feelings," she finally said. "I want Dad to remember this the next time he's tempted to blackmail you and your father and then try to distract me from getting into any trouble."

Scorpius, whose only goal had been to force her to think about her motivations, nodded, accepting this answer. He wasn't pleased about the danger involved with her plan, but he knew it was futile to stop her.

"Okay, I'm with you then."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 **

**A/N: Hello readers! Sorry, I've been crocheting again. Christmas presents and all that.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! To the guest who said Rose is getting annoying: I can't fix it if you don't tell me how she's annoying.**

**~Frosty**

"I know it's backwards, but I hate it when you dig out the push up bra. It's never for my enjoyment, always for someone else's."

Rose looked down and absently adjusted herself to sit better in the cups. "I wear it for you sometimes, but you just take it off again."

She turned towards Scorpius and started tugging on his lapels to make sure they were perfectly straight. They were already flawless, of course, she just liked touching him. His trip had been unpleasant and she refused to continuously express how much she had missed him with words. The knowing tilt to his lips said he knew exactly what she was doing.

"How about this," Rose said, still holding his lapels and looking up at him. "Once we're finished with our outing, I'll let you play with them as much as you want."

A faint blush spread across Scorpius' cheeks. He'd clearly been gone too long if a little teasing made him turn pink, or maybe her suggestion just appealed to him that much. It wasn't like the offer wasn't a longstanding one. Either way, she was pleased.

"How generous," Scorpius said dryly, his tone not giving any hint of the reason for his pink cheeks.

"I'm nothing if not kind and generous."

She wrapped her hands around his arm and led him out of the small copse of trees where they'd been hiding. The trees were just outside their destination, so they didn't have far to walk.

Scorpius gave the tiniest of sighs. She only noticed because she was so close at his side and felt his chest expand with the breath. "I hate parties."

"Maybe you should think of that next time you try to deceive me. I hate when you lie to me."

As they approached the front door of a well lit and very large house, Scorpius looked down with more wariness than he usually expressed towards her. "This is a punishment as well as a favour."

It wasn't a question, so Rose didn't bother responding. She did allow a tiny, smug smile on her lips. She'd warned him her solution was elegant. Everyone was going to get what was coming to them.

"I'd hate to think what you have planned for you father."

Her smile widened. "Let's just say it's going to be a while before he tries to pull one over on me again."

They were greeted at the door by a woman with a list and a smile that managed to say she was pleased they could make it and that she was infinitely superior to them at the same time. It was an expression Rose immediately wished she could copy. She made a mental note to work on it the next time she practiced her expressions in the mirror. She didn't do this for vanity, but for practicality. After all, what was the advantage of reading people so well if she had no control over her own expressions?

"Names?" the woman asked imperiously. She already had the clipboard up, just waiting to tell them they weren't on the list.

Over her shoulder, there were two intimidating men standing with their arms crossed and their wands sticking out of their belts in an easily accessible position. Not surprising, really, considering the guest list of this party.

Rose thought they were seriously overestimating the popularity of their party. It wasn't like there was a long line of people just desperate to get in. There was no one in sight. Despite being a little late, Rose had thought they'd at least see another person as they approached the house. Apparently she'd been wrong.

She hoped it would be the only false assumption she had made.

Having spoken with Quinn ahead of time and had him call in a favour from someone he knew, Rose didn't have to make something up to explain why she wasn't on the list. Instead, she flashed her teeth in her shark's smile and tightened her hold on Scorpius as she gave a fake name.

"Welcome," the woman said, her face saying something completely different. It seemed that she'd really hoped Rose and Scorpius wouldn't be on the list and she would be able to turn them away. The men behind her looked just as eager to put those large muscles to good use. It was probably boring just loitering in the foyer all night.

Rose was going to have to make sure to bring Quinn a bunch more apple muffins when she had some spare time. He'd really come through for her to get her past Miss Welcoming Committee.

"Welcoming lot," Scorpius grumbled as they went further into the house.

"Just mingle and smile at anyone who looks our way."

Rose spared a glance at the men back in the entrance foyer before very subtly taking two paper-wrapped boxes out of one of Scorpius' pockets. Once again the time she'd spent practicing her pickpocket skills was coming in handy; the men behind her didn't see a thing.

Scorpius took one box and placed it in a vase on one side of the hallway while Rose set the other on a ledge a little further down the wall. No one would notice them unless they were actually looking for something out of place among the expensive decorations.

The party was a little smaller than Rose had been expecting, only thirty or so people, and almost all of them were older than her and Scorpius by a good margin. Being so young made the two stand out more than she would like but not enough for her to abort the plan.

She scanned the room, quickly pinpointing the man who was in charge of everything. A sideways glance at Scorpius confirmed that he'd come to the same conclusion.

The man was attractive in an older gentleman type of way, and his voice boomed when he spoke. If she wasn't looking at him, Rose would have thought he was a fat man based purely on the jolly, booming way he spoke.

He was surrounded by people, almost all of them with drinks in their hands as they hung on his every word. Rose was sure his story wasn't as riveting as his audience was pretending, but she still put on a smile to match everyone else's as Scorpius led them over to stand in the crowd around him.

Quinn had told her little about this man, Marco Petra - not because he'd been withholding information from her, but because not much was known about him. She hadn't even been able to find all that much in the Ministry's files on him. From what Rose had heard though, he was ruthless in the pursuit of his wants and widely feared in the criminal world.

Just as everyone was laughing at the second of what Rose was discovering to be truly terrible jokes, the woman who had been standing guard at the door entered the room, this time without her clipboard. Surprisingly, she wasn't just a peon. The guests greeted her with almost as much enthusiasm as they had showed their leader's bad jokes, and she was instantly included in the conversation as she attached herself to Petra's arm.

Immediately, the woman's sharp eyes sought out Rose and Scorpius in the crowd before narrowing suspiciously. She was still doubtful about allowing them entrance.

In her searching, Rose hadn't come across much on this woman who had to be Mrs. Petra. It was only seeing them together that Rose realized Marco and this woman were wearing matching wedding bands. Not much was known about the woman besides her seeming disinterest in her husband's business and her fondness for shiny things. She was even more of a mystery than Marco. Rose mentally added suspicious, snobby, and superior to the other things known about the woman.

Marco noticed that his wife was taking too long with her laughter after a particularly long-winded and tasteless joke. He turned to her and found her gaze elsewhere, and he followed her eyes to Scorpius and Rose with a small frown.

Noticing that she was caught, Mrs. Petra turned her attention back to her husband with an adoring smile Rose could tell was false. Before she did this, though, she flicked her eyes to the large men who had followed her into the room and positioned themselves on either side of the exit, giving them some sort of signal.

Rose wasn't really concerned.

The rest of the people in the room were getting pretty buzzed from the constant champagne and stronger alcohol. They wouldn't notice if one person in their midst were to suddenly disappear. This worked for and against Rose and her plan. She'd be able to slip away unnoticed, but she could also be taken away and no one bust Scorpius would notice.

Scorpius' glass was emptier than hers since he could take a lot more alcohol before he started to feel it. Nudging him with her hip, she offered him her full glass and switched it for his emptier one.

"Be careful," Scorpius warned without moving his lips. He subtly watched the two door guards out of the corner of his eyes, managing to laugh at the next horrible joke, but still look subtly concerned over her safety.

"I always am," she said with a radiant smile. She had to be careful showing her teeth when she was trying to look nice and innocent.

Rose stumbled towards the guards, throwing back her head and drinking the rest of her champagne in one big gulp as they watched her approach. She somehow rolled one of her ankles trying to stumble towards them in her unusually high heels. It added to the whole effect of her drunkenness, but she wasn't going to be able to run if she needed to.

Hiding the pained grimace her face wanted to morph into and the slight limp she wanted to adopt to favour her injured ankle, Rose continued to approach the guards. She felt the heavy weight of Scorpius' disapproving and worried stare, and took a minute to turn back to him with a drunken giggle and wiggle her fingers at him in a flirtatious smile so he'd know she was okay.

"I have to pee," Rose said to the guards when they looked like they were about to move in front of her to bar her exit. She danced from foot to foot and widened her eyes at them pathetically, channelling drunken party girl to the best of her considerable ability.

The guards exchanged a slightly suspicious glance but shrugged and permitted her out of the room. She could seem relatively harmless when she wanted to, and what trouble could she possibly cause in the space of a few minutes?

"Third door on the right," one of the guards grunted.

As soon as she was out of their sight, Rose slipped off her heels and rushed down the corridor, knowing she only had a few minutes until those suspicious guards came looking for her. She rushed straight towards the stairs. Something as incriminating as a deed won in an illegal card game wouldn't be hidden on the first floor where someone might accidentally come across it.

Rose struck gold when she limped into what appeared to be Marco's study. She immediately rushed towards the desk and started rifling through the drawers. It was careless of him to think that the security on his house to be sufficient to keep the sensitive documents she found herself rifling through safe as well. This was especially careless when he was known to have such large parties with known criminals.

Magical deeds were something different than their Muggle counterparts. Whoever held the deed was magically bound to the property – not in any immediately noticeable ways, but it would prevent someone else from moving into the home without the permission of the deed holder. Squatting wasn't really a problem in the magical world.

Thankfully – and irritatingly – Hugo had thought to get the formerly Muggle property of Henrietta's grandparents' house transferred to a magical deed before he stupidly lost the thing in a drunken bet. When Rose got the thing back, she was going to make sure that Henrietta was the one who held the deed. Clearly her brother couldn't handle the responsibility.

She found the deed to her brother's house at the top of the last drawer she searched. It was crinkled around the edges as if it had been absently stuffed in there at the end of the day.

Knowing that the guards were probably looking for her by now, Rose quickly folded the deed and shoved it down between her breasts. Yet another advantage to the push up bra; a convenient place to carry things when she didn't have pockets. Scorpius just couldn't properly appreciate its many wonders. She was going to leave the bra part out of her story when she returned the deed to her brother and told him how much he was going to owe her.

"I thought I might find you here," Mrs. Petra said from her position in the doorway. She held up a hand when Rose opened her mouth to say something and then twitched her fingers at someone out of Rose's sight in the corridor. The two large men came into view, each holding one of Scorpius' arms.

He had a black eye. Rose was going to make sure they paid for that.

"I think it's time we had a little talk," Petra said as she stepped into the room, the men dragging Scorpius in behind her.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**A/N: Hello readers! Only one chapter after this one. The end approaches...**

**It's snowing today, which is exciting. I learned last night that if the internet says it's -17 outside with wind chill, a middle of the night walk is a bad idea. Should have been common sense, but sometimes I have a problem with that.**

**Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

Rose was shoved into a chair beside Scorpius, both of their wands taken from them. She and Scorpius were tied to the chairs with scratchy rope - though thankfully rope of the non poison variety.

Things were not going quite as she'd planned. At least the guard who patted her down missed the deed hidden in her bra. He'd tried to do a proper job patting her down, only to be scolded by Mrs. Petra when he took too long on her breasts.

"I knew the moment you showed up at the house that something strange was going on with you two. Your names were on the list, but you had no idea who I was." Mrs. Petra stood up straighter, looking even more superior – something Rose wouldn't have thought possible.

"Why let us in then?" Rose asked, mostly stalling while she looked over Scorpius, questioning with her eyes whether he was hurt. He glared her into paying attention to the situation at hand, silently scolding her for worrying about him when she should be more concerned with getting them out of their sticky situation. Bossy.

Mrs. Petra shrugged. "My idiot husband's parties are excruciatingly boring. When a potentially entertaining situation presented itself, I pounced. And it seems I was right. I've heard impressive things about you, Rose Weasley."

"That's interesting, since I've heard almost nothing about you." Rose tilted her head to the side and studied the older woman. "I have, however, heard plenty about your husband - though having met you both I'm starting to think much of what everyone attributes to him is actually your work."

The woman smiled, her expression eerily similar to the shark's grin Rose exhibited with some regularity. "I was wondering if you would live up to the stories about you. I'm happy I'm not disappointed."

Rose glanced at Scorpius to see him mirroring her movement, both of them thinking the same thing; they were looking at an older, crueler version of her. This was the person Rose could have grown into without Scorpius to keep her grounded and her family to love her unconditionally.

"Mrs. Petra," Rose started, but the woman held up a hand.

"Please, call me Jessa. I hate being associated with Marco when I don't have to be, especially when there's someone who understands me in the room. I'd go almost as far as saying you and I were equals – though you obviously have some maturing to do before you pose a proper threat."

Rose blinked, wondering when in the world they'd become so close and when exactly this woman had decided that Rose wasn't a threat. Jessa had blackened Scorpius' eye. In Rose's books, that meant the woman was never going to be anything other than an enemy, no matter how well they understood each other. And if she thought Rose wasn't a force to be reckoned with, she was quickly going to learn otherwise.

"Are you implying we're alike?" Rose asked mildly, showing none of her animosity.

"Of course. Like you, I'm attached to a man not worthy of me, and like you, I'm in that position because his place in society and his fortune are convenient." She sent a contemptuous look towards Scorpius, who kept his face completely blank. "We have both worked to make a name for ourselves through manipulation, and we defy our overbearing fathers regularly."

Rose wouldn't go as far as calling her father overbearing or saying that most of the work she did was in defiance of her father. In fact, a lot of the time she did things that helped her father and the Aurors.

She thought back to the files she'd read on Mr. Petra. His wife's father hadn't been mentioned, leaving Rose without information that was apparently more important than the Aurors had thought. They really were slacking in their investigations.

Rose hated being without a key piece of the puzzle. Her only consolation was that the Aurors didn't have that piece either. It wasn't much of a consolation.

She let Jessa rant for a while about the stupidity of her husband. The woman wasn't as similar to Rose as she liked to think. She was much too controlled by her emotions and apparently prone to projecting her own feelings on to other people. It was careless of her.

Rose was bored out of her mind, but she didn't want to stop the woman on the off chance that she gave up some piece of information that was usable. However, nothing usable seemed likely to present itself.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that Jessa was a dangerous sociopath in desperate need of some psychological help. Rose idly wondered if she herself would have lost her mind like this if she'd had a different upbringing. Somehow, Rose doubted it.

What Jessa did reveal was that she thought she and Rose had something in common because their fathers were both Aurors – or at least Jessa's father had been an Auror before she'd had him killed. Apparently he'd been a terrible father and the main reason she had a problem with authority. It was like Jessa had gone so long pretending to be the nice criminal's wife and suppressing every little thought that now that she had someone she thought sympathised with her, she couldn't stop the torrent of words from escaping.

Finally tired of the crazed ranting, Rose interrupted her. "If you hate the Aurors so much, how come you take one around with you as a hulking guard?"

Jessa was, of course, immediately suspicious, both of her guards and of what Rose was saying. She was a little crazed, but Jessa wasn't stupid.

"Which one?" she asked Rose, her eyes on the men while they shared a bewildered glance. One of them looked almost panicked and Jessa immediately zeroed in on him, sensing weakness like any good predator.

Huh. Rose had taken a guess that one of the two men was an Auror plant. It had been a stab in the dark really. If he wasn't sent there to spy for the Ministry, goon number two was definitely there to do something his boss lady wasn't going to like. He practically squirmed out of his skin when Jessa approached him.

While the woman's back was turned, Scorpius gave Rose a look that clearly told her to try not to get anyone killed. She rolled her eyes at him, the situation well in hand.

"Is this true, Gervis?" Jessa asked the large man, her nose nearly touching his chin as she invaded his personal space. Intimidation was easier with greater height, but Jessa made do with a decent attempt. "Did the Aurors send you here to betray me?"

If the man was from the Aurors, they really should have put more effort in training him to lie. Gervis was practically shaking in his boots. "O-of course not. I'm loyal, Jessa."

No he wasn't, and Jessa could tell just as easily as Rose could.

"I should kill you," she hissed.

"I have a better idea," Rose called.

More trusting now that she knew Rose had told the truth about her bodyguard, Jessa flicked her wrist at her still-loyal guard and had him restrain his partner while she turned back to her captives. She was clearly projecting her lack of faith in her husband onto Scorpius instead of seeing him for the threat he was, because she continued to ignore him and only address Rose.

"And what would you suggest?" she asked, still suspicious.

"Send Mr. Traitor there back to the Aurors with a hostage note," Rose suggested. "You have me, someone the Aurors will want back very much. If I were in your shoes, I'd be using it to my advantage."

"What do you get out of this arrangement?"

Rose shrugged. "My father tried to manipulate me and I didn't appreciate it. I want him to suffer a little so he knows he can't do that kind of thing and get away unscathed. What better way to make him squirm than to find out that his little girl has been kidnapped by criminals that the Aurors are watching?"

"I'll consider it," Jessa said, tilting her head to the side as she thought about the idea. Rose could tell that she didn't want to trust her, but at the same time Jessa liked the idea and wanted to say no to the logic of going against what her captives suggested. Unfortunately for her, she was projecting her hatred of her own father onto Ron, and with her own father dead, there weren't many ways for her to get back at the real man.

Abruptly, Jessa left the room, jerking her head for her loyal bodyguard to drag the other one after her.

"You know there's a good chance she's going to kill him," Scorpius observed once they were alone in the room. There was no accusation in the statement; it was just an idle comment.

"Better him than us." Rose sounded nonchalant in case Jessa was using some sort of listening device. She knew Scorpius could tell that she was actually concerned about the man. Turning Jessa against her own guards was supposed to limit the number of people between them and the exit, not get someone who was doing his best to bring in criminals killed for doing his job.

Scorpius shifted around a little, wiggling until he loosened the ropes. For someone so suspicious, it was a wonder that Jessa hadn't made sure the ropes holding her captives were tight enough to actually keep them captive.

"These ropes are tight," Scorpius said with a straight face as he held up his free hands and then went to work on untying Rose.

"I guess we're stuck here until Jessa comes to a decision," she responded, perfectly deadpan.

* * *

When Jessa returned to the room a few hours later, Rose and Scorpius were both in their chairs with their hands behind their backs as if they were still tied there.

They'd watched from the window as all the guests from the party had filed out of the house, most of them stumbling as their alcohol-addled minds struggled to keep them upright. Rose sincerely doubted that she and Scorpius had been missed.

This time, Jessa was only accompanied by one guard.

"I've sent the traitor with a message to your father," Jessa told Rose. "But his compliance with my exorbitant ransom isn't what's going to determine your survival."

"What will?" Rose asked.

"I want to know why you snuck into my party in the first place, and, while we're on the topic, why you ruined one of my most profitable gambling dens – yes, I know that was you."

Rose glanced at the clock and then at Scorpius, ready to be done with the whole hostage thing. They only had a few more minutes until the little packages they'd left in the foyer made themselves known. Scorpius, keeping an eye on the time as well, nodded at her when she subtly held up three fingers.

Jessa caught the exchange, of course, but she was still too confident in the rope holding them to think they were arranging an escape attempt. She kept her eyes on them, but she didn't try to separate them or anything that might have prevented what happened next.

"You had something of my brother's and I was just getting it back for him," Rose said as Scorpius launched himself at the guard. Before Jessa could realize what was happening and take out her wand, Rose jumped from her own chair and tackled the woman.

Almost in unison, Scorpius and Rose found their captor's wands and stunned them.

"This has taken a little longer than I anticipated," Rose said, dusting off her hands. She accepted the guard's wand from Scorpius, put both wands in one of the desk drawers, and then locked them magically while Scorpius dragged the two frozen figures to the side of the room. It would be a shame for someone to trip over them.

"I wasn't aware that we had other plans." Scorpius looked immensely relieved to have his own wand back. He had faith in Rose, of course, but there was faith and then there was stupidity. He preferred to have a wand on him when faced with potentially deadly criminals; it was just a quirk of his.

Ignoring him, Rose crouched down beside Jessa, knowing that though she couldn't show it, the older woman could hear her just fine. "You should have married an equal, not a puppet. I think you could have been someone less... bitter if you had."

"Rose," Scorpius called from the door. "The time."

She turned to move towards him just as the door burst open, slamming into Scorpius and making him stumble a few steps before he tripped, hitting his head on the desk on his way to the floor.

It was Marco, red in the face and clearly struggling to see them properly, but a threat nonetheless.

Rose raised her wand, ready to defend herself and Scorpius, but the drunkard was faster than she had given him credit for. She didn't want to admit to herself that Jess's opinion of the man had coloured her thoughts. Unfortunately, she had to do exactly that as the supposedly useless and definitely drunk man disarmed her and shoved her to the floor beside Scorpius, who was conscious but groggy.

"I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm dense!" Marco roared as his wand gave off angry red sparks. One had to wonder what in the world Jessa had said to him while she'd been out of the room.

Seeing that the burning sparks were going to hit Scorpius, Rose shifted so that she was over top of him, burning her arm in the process. She hissed in pain and glanced at the clock once more.

"Brace yourself," she whispered to Scorpius, who was conscious but blinking groggily at everything. The packages had been intended as a little surprise for the people who had put Rose through entirely too much trouble. Rose had thought she and Scorpius would be long gone by the time they actually went off.

Scorpius shakily managed to drag himself partially under the desk, Rose right behind him.

"You can't hide from me!" Marco shouted. His wand was half raised to try and hex them out from their hiding place when a rumble that shook the entire building ruined his already shaky balance and had him flat on his back. It sounded like he hit his head pretty hard when it bounced on the ground.

Rose was quick to her feet, grabbing Marco's wand as well as her own before stunning him.

"Can you walk?" she asked Scorpius as he got unsteadily to his feet.

"Can you?" He shot a pointed – and only slightly blurry – glance towards the ankle he'd watched her roll earlier.

"We'll lean on each other."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**A/N: Final chapter! Thanks to everyone who stuck with me for the story and especially to everyone who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

The house wasn't damaged too much structurally, so Rose and Scorpius were able to limp their way out without any trouble. They both smiled a little as they walked through the foyer and saw the large hole that had been blown in the middle of the house. The walls that had been destroyed must not have been load bearing, since the place was still standing and seemed structurally sound. The fancy foyer was certainly never going to be the same again; not even magic could get craters like that out of marble.

The potion Rose had used to do the damage was put in a glass vial and then upended once in place. From there, they had until it soaked through the spelled paper covering the vial before the potion made contact with the air and exploded. It was a clever little invention. Scorpius had come up with it not that long ago as a birthday present for her.

Rose peeked out one of the front windows and saw that there were numerous Aurors gathered around the front of the house. "Maybe we should go out the back way."

They slipped out the back door unnoticed since apparently the Aurors hadn't yet organized themselves enough to cover all the exits. They must have just arrived and were probably hesitant to enter for fear that there would be more explosions or a collapse.

Their cautiousness made Rose's escape so much easier, something that pleased her. While she had expected to be long gone by the time the Aurors moved in, everything seemed to be working out pretty smoothly anyway.

Rose and Scorpius made their way around the front of the house, keeping to the shadows. It wouldn't do to be stunned by some overeager young Auror startled by their sudden appearance.

"It's no wonder the list of wanted criminals is so long," Scorpius murmured. "We just blew up a building surrounded by Aurors and now we're walking away. I never had much confidence in Aurors, but this is ridiculous."

Looking up to warn him not to jinx them, Rose was distracted by the dark spot in his bright hair.

"You're bleeding," she whispered.

Scorpius put a hand up to the back of his head and then looked at his fingers, surprised to find wetness there.

"I am not having a good week for injuries."

"No, you're not."

They fell silent and focused on keeping their balance as they leaned on each other. Having looped around the gathering of Aurors, they approached them from behind unnoticed since the entirety of the Auror's attention was focused on the house.

"You father's in fine form tonight," Scorpius observed as they watched Ron yell at a few younger Aurors.

"What do you _mean _you can't go in the house until you've confirmed it's structurally stable? Move aside, I'll go in myself." Ron tried to fight his way through several Aurors who wisely held him back. In his state, he was likely to shout the building down around himself.

"He's having a bad day," Harry said from beside Rose. She hadn't heard him walk up beside her and jumped into Scorpius in surprise. Probably concussed, the blond stumbled and barely managed to steady them both, only just saving them from an embarrassing tumble to the grass.

"First he found out that his favourite bakery has suddenly stopped making his favourite treats because they're under new ownership and everything he likes isn't 'cost effective'."

Rose widened her eyes. "I wouldn't know anything about that," she said while Scorpius snorted beside her.

"Then," Harry continued, "He found out that his daughter was being held for ransom by a known murderer. The only reason Marco Petra isn't behind bars is because we haven't been able to prove that he's done any of the crimes attributed to him."

"How can I possibly have control over who holds me hostage?" Rose asked, blinking innocently at him. "As you can see, Scorpius and I are no longer hostage, and I think you'll find that you couldn't pin any of those murders on Marco because it was his wife doing most of the work. He was always just a puppet." She glanced at Scorpius, who still looked a little dazed. "Though I'm sure he was guilty of a few crimes of his own."

Swaying slightly, Scorpius was struggling to keep his balance and tired of the small talk. He was never the most patient of people and he especially wasn't when he was in pain. "The house is sound enough, Rose and I just walked through it without any issues. You'll find your criminals on the second floor office, stunned. Their wands are magically locked in the desk."

Rose looked up at Scorpius, worried about him. She held him a little tighter to steady him and gave him a consolatory look so he'd know she'd received his hint.

"Tell Daddy that I went easy on him this time," Rose said to her uncle. "And that the next time he thinks to manipulate me, he should probably remember this and imagine how much worse I could have made it."

Harry's eyes flared briefly in surprise. "You two engineered this whole thing, didn't you?"

"Not me," Scorpius grumbled. Rose's father was still a little wary around him even after so many years, and he really didn't want anything else against him in Ron's mind.

"Not the head wounds," Rose said with a glance at Scorpius. "Those weren't part of my plan. We're going to go get that looked at now."

Harry waved them away. "It's probably best you're not here when I tell Ron this was one big scheme. I don't think he's going to take it well."

Being the one with the clearer head, Rose Apparated to Hugo's house before Harry could change his mind and tell her that maybe she should tell Ron herself.

Hugo was understandably grateful when Rose gave him the deed. He healed them both without complaint and willingly accepted that he may never be able to repay Rose for what she had done for him. Already, Rose was going over a few things she could ask him to do. She was going to have fun making him repay her.

When Rose and Scorpius were back at their house, safe, sound, and fully healed, Scorpius collapsed on the sofa, grunting when Rose pounced on him and squeezed tightly.

"I forgive you," she said, snuggling her face against his neck. "I was so scared when Marco burst into the room. I thought for a second that he had killed you."

"All it took to get forgiveness was a near death experience?" he asked, faking disbelief. "I'll have to make sure not to anger you again. I'm not sure either of us would survive what it would take to get you to forgive me again."

"See that you do. I had fun with the planning, but I'm not sure my father would forgive me for calling so many Aurors out of bed again."

After such an eventful night, they were exhausted and quickly fell asleep wrapped around each other.

* * *

"What's cocaine?" Lily asked, sounding irritated.

Rose casually glanced at her cousin, pretending she had no idea why Lily was asking. "It's a magical Muggle substance that can't travel across borders without the carrier spending a long time in prison."

"Why do I have the feeling you had something to do with my husband's arrest?" Lily didn't sound angry, just resigned. It was impossible for her to remain at a hostage-taking level of rage and retain her sanity, something for which Rose was appreciative.

"Because she did," Hy said from behind Rose as she fluffed her friend's curls. "Now can you stop focusing on unimportant things and start doing your job as a bridesmaid?"

"The bride put my husband in jail for what's looking like at least a decade. What should I be doing?"

"You can find my father," Rose said. "He's been avoiding me since I was held hostage and I want to make sure he's going to be here to walk me down the aisle."

There was much grumbling, but Lily eventually caved beneath the combined expectant stares of both former Slytherins.

As soon as Lily was gone, Hy stopped her fluffing and squeezed Rose tightly. "I always knew you were going to marry Scorpius, but this wedding is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. You're so lucky."

"You're the one who helped plan this thing."

Despite her hatred of weddings, her own especially, Rose had to admit Sybil and the wedding planning team had done a wonderful job with the whole thing. The dress was perfect, even though Rose had only attended the final fitting. It really helped to have a friend the same size as her.

Hy squeezed her again, making Rose really glad that she was only going to be married once. She couldn't deal with all of the spontaneous hugs and the _tears_. Both her mum and Astoria had been in and out of the room as Rose got ready, and both of them had swiped at their eyes every time they saw Rose. It was disconcerting and she couldn't wait for it to stop.

Thankfully, Lily entered the room with Ron in tow, saving Rose from Hy's dripping.

At least, that was what Rose thought until she saw that her father had tears in his eyes as well.

"I'll see you on the other side," Hy said as she left the room. She had the strange idea that marriage to Scorpius would somehow change something about Rose on a fundamental level. In Rose's mind, all that was changing was that she was going to have to get used to referring to herself by a different last name.

Lily left the room after Hy, trying to get the other girl to explain to her how Rose had not only gotten her hands on cocaine, but how she's managed to plant it on someone on the other side of the world. It was futile though; Hyacinth had absolutely no idea how Rose had managed it and it was going to stay that way.

"You look so beautiful," Ron said. Either not hearing or pretending not to hear what Lily was asking the maid of honour.

Rose smiled, glad that he finally had his tears under control. His voice was croaky, but no moisture escaped his eyes.

Growing more serious, Ron took a few steps closer as if to hug her before thinking better of it and pausing. "You arranged to have yourself held hostage _and _bought the bakery that made my favourite pastries just to stop them from making all my favourites."

She wasn't sure which one was less forgivable to him but decided to believe it was the former. The safety of his children before his stomach and all that.

"I also helped you catch a woman you've been chasing for a very long time. After, of course, I made you realize that it was her and not her husband that was the mastermind behind their little criminal empire. I think it balances out."

"Look, Rosie," he said, immensely uncomfortable. "I'm sorry for what I did, but-"

Rose interrupted him. "Stop right there. Justifying yourself will only take away from the apology, which I accept."

After a wait, Ron asked, "Are you going to apologise to me as well?"

She grinned. "Nope. I'd be more than happy to do it all over again if you do something to hurt Scorpius again. You might not like him too much, but I'm marrying him and he's family."

"I guess I can accept that," Ron said, offering her his arm.

They headed out of the room, lining up with the bridesmaids and Hy, the maid of honour, just as the wedding march started.

Rose pasted a plastic smile on her face and pretended that she was enjoying the whole process. She wasn't. As long as she kept telling herself that it was a means to an end, she was able to deal with it, but there was no enjoyment on her part.

"Don't think this means the bakery is going to start making your favourite treats again," she said without moving her lips.

Since her father didn't possess this skill, he was forced to keep his complaints to himself, though Rose thought he did a pretty good job expressing himself with his slumped posture and defeated sigh.

She was briefly amused, but then forgot all about it when she set eyes on Scorpius. While she would never admit it to anyone, save maybe Scorpius, at that moment, she briefly thought that maybe weddings weren't so horrible after all.

The flight of fancy was quickly forgotten when she nearly tripped over the hem of her stupidly long dress and Scorpius had to smother his amusement. Weddings were just a bunch of ridiculous pomp and circumstance for something that didn't really warrant it. She'd been quietly committed to Scorpius for years and didn't see why they had to see relatives they never liked just to prove it.

Ron escorted her down the aisle and solemnly passed her hand to Scorpius without another problem.

"You've read the papers?" Scorpius asked quietly when he saw the little smirk she'd been wearing since Lily had confronted her about the cocaine article.

They'd been separated for two days while their families and friends dragged them to bachelor and bachelorette parties and then insisted that they not see each other the night before the wedding because it was bad luck. Neither the bride nor the groom had been very pleased with the surprise, but they'd allowed their families to have their way.

"Aren't you supposed to be telling me how beautiful I am?"

"You know you're a vision."

"And you know I saw the papers."

The officiator cleared his throat, giving them a pointed look for all the whispering they were doing, but Rose disregarded him. If she wanted to delay her own wedding slightly to have a word with her groom, then she could damn well do it. The man had no business trying to hush them when they were the ones paying him.

"Feeling better about Lily's hostage situation?" Scorpius asked quietly with a sideways peek at her cousin.

Somewhere along the sidelines, Sybil was probably on the verge of an aneurism at the delay. It was a good thing Rose had had a word with the catering staff and asked them to slip calming draughts to a few specific members of the audience, Sybil included.

Rose grinned at Scorpius and gave a little nod. She felt so much better about what Lily had done now that her husband was going to spend a long time behind bars. Lily was free to divorce him and find someone better without him and their past there to interfere with her healing, and Rose was content with the knowledge that she hadn't crumpled like a used napkin to the demands of her cousin.

Catching the officiator's shudder out of the corner of her eye, Rose made her grin something less pointy and more appropriate for the wedding. She was aiming for demure for the sake of the pictures being taken, but Scorpius' expression suggested she hadn't quite managed it. That was fine, she wasn't demure anyway.

While she focused on her facial expression, Scorpius gave the officiator a subtle nod as a signal to start the wedding.

Rose was glad she was far away from the crying members of the Weasley and Malfoy families. As long as they were on the little raised platform in front of the officiator, they were safe from watery hugs.

The ceremony finished without any further interruptions from the bride or the groom. There was a small hitch when Scorpius' kiss wasn't to Rose's satisfaction and she dragged him back to her for a proper kiss to seal their marriage. This was over quickly though, only pictures and Scorpius' pink cheeks as proof that it had ever happened.

"You're in a hurry to get out of the church," Scorpius commented as Rose towed him down the aisle. There was more than a little accusation in the seemingly mild statement. He knew her so well.

"Your Aunt Daphne was snide to me. I don't know how someone like Professor Zabini could end up with someone as horrible as her."

"What did you do?"

Just outside the church doors, she tugged him to a stop. "Wait for it."

There was a screech and then several panicked voices, followed by the sound of many feet all headed towards the exit.

"What did you do?" Scorpius asked again as Rose pulled him away from the church quickly. She didn't want to get trampled as people rushed from the building.

"Let's just say that I met a very clever owl recently, one trained to drop a hair loss potion on a person of my choice."

"And you chose Aunt Daphne?"

Rose grinned. "Yep. Are you mad?"

"Not really, she deserved it. I'm mostly just glad that we're going on our honeymoon and I don't have to deal with hearing about it from her. You know this is going to put us in her bad books forever, right?"

She toed off the uncomfortable shoes that went with her dress and then took his hand. "I think we can handle it." Rose glanced behind her at the angry people coming from the church. At least they weren't crying any more. "What do you say we skip the reception and start our honeymoon a little early?"

Scorpius followed her gaze. "I think we should probably extend the honeymoon while we're at it. Aunt Daphne looks ready to tear you apart with her bare hands."

"Maybe it's just the hair loss making her look fiercer."

"No, it's definitely the intent to kill in her eyes that makes her look fiercer." Scorpius grabbed his wife, yanking her against him and out of the way of the spell his aunt had thrown at her.

"Time to go," he said, Apparating them both to the cottage by the ocean where they were to spend their honeymoon.

"I knew you were up to something when you refused to reveal where we were honeymooning," he said, looking out a window and admiring both the beautiful beach and the remoteness of the cottage. "This is as much safe house as it is getaway."

Rose kissed him. "Stop talking, we're married now and need to celebrate. Handling the angry mob comes later."

"They're probably not going to be the last angry mob I meet during our marriage," he mused.

"But this is our only honeymoon."

There was no arguing with that logic. Scorpius did as she asked and kissed her.


End file.
